Spirit of the Hunt
by TheAmateurAJ
Summary: Remnant, a world captured in an endless embrace of light and darkness. No matter the shape or form, both forces have fought each other since the dawning of time, and when one looks victorious there's always a spark to ignite the spirit of the other. One such spark is Naruto Uzumaki, a young man with a spirit waiting to be a beacon to shine on his dreams and the lives of others.
1. Laying the Foundation

**AN: Well... this is a thing now, I guess. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Laying the Foundation**

 _So much was happening yet the clarity of it all felt practically nonexistent._

 _Noises were muffled, vision was incredibly obscured, touch barely breached numbness and the barest hint of aromas and tastes reached the tongue and nostrils. No sense was spared but nothing was fully registered, not even the passing of time._

 _Such was the state of any mind under enough, or even too little, stress. This could happen for various reasons and perhaps a specific one could be determined at a later time, but for the recipient of these sensations that scenario was put on the furthest backburner possible._

 _While his young mind couldn't properly comprehend a majority of what it took in, he was still able to pick out little bits and pieces, though it didn't help that whatever he managed to pick up kept… changing, for better or worse._

 _Blades of grass tickled his feet in one instance only to be replaced by tough gravel in another. Distant laughter was heard followed by echoed yells of various emotions. Warmth from what he guessed was a blanket covered him before changing to the warmth of… fire, maybe? A strong smell of fresh bread wafted in the air until it switched to… iron? It was all confusing, but nothing was questioned in his mental state. It was all simply there and then it wasn't._

 _That is, until something decided to stay._

 _A pair of red eyes._

 _They just stared and didn't convey anything. The sight was somehow simultaneously calm and intimidating while the mystery behind them only enhanced the sensation. Yet he only stared back, not feeling much of anything but idle curiosity._

 _Then they suddenly disappeared and he felt a pair of arms wrap around him._

" _You have so much ahead of you, Naruto…"_

* * *

"C'mon, Naruto. You need to wake up," a woman's voice spoke.

"Hm?" he groaned out unintelligibly.

She sighed before she shook his shoulder a little more. "We can't wait on you forever. Get your lazy butt up or I'm not making you any breakfast."

The groggy male let a yawn escape him as he stretched as best he could while his eyelids cracked open. "But… I can't see anything…" he muttered offhandedly.

The female rolled her eyes and reached forward to pull the object on his face down to his neck to join his other accessory, revealing half-lidded azure eyes drowsily looking at the ceiling. "There, I've granted you sight once again! Use my esteemed gift with the godly inventions known as arms and legs to lift thee from thy couch!" she replied in her best snobbish voice.

A smile formed on his tired face as he adjusted the cloth to comfortably wrap around his throat. It disappeared, though, as he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "Really, five in the morning? I thought you loved me, Ayame. Why would do this to me?" he muttered in monotonous despair, accented by another powerful yawn.

He turned his gaze to said girl rolling her brown eyes at him again as she continued brushing her hair while decked out in most of her white uniform. With her long brown locks still holding moisture he guessed she had just gotten out of the shower.

"It's because I love you that I don't want you suddenly going back on your word. You don't want this to be the first promise you've ever broken, do you?"

"And remind me again what that promise was, please."

Ayame stopped brushing momentarily and gave him a faux glare with crossed arms. "You said you were going to help me buy more ingredients while dad gets the kitchen ready. Did you really forget?"

Naruto rubbed some of the crust from his eyes while sitting up, making the small blanket covering him fall from his torso. "Sorry, I was busy last night and I guess it might've slipped my mind."

With the blanket no longer covering his chest she glanced at his tattered black shirt and narrowed her eyes at him. "You went on another one of your _outings_ , didn't you?"

Naruto looked down and saw a few small rips and tears in his clothing along with some dried blood spots in the fabric and on his arms. "Look, I just-"

"I know, Naruto, I know," she interrupted as her face softened. "It's just that knowing you're doing this without anyone watching your back makes me worried. You never know what can happen and I don't want you just up and disappearing one day."

With a sigh the male briefly ran a hand through his spiky blond hair before looking back at her with an understanding smile. "I'm sorry if it stresses you out, but doing this has helped me a lot in my training."

Ayame uncrossed her arms and plopped next to the blond on the couch after he moved out of the way, showing his pants weren't much better off than his shirt.

She leaned her head and back against the cushion and lazily glanced at him. "So which was it this time? Forever Fall or Emerald? Or did you decide to just tick off a bunch of criminals?"

He matched her position and waved her off. "I don't think messing with people in the city is exactly a good idea. I don't want to end up getting a criminal record if things go south and I screw everything up."

The brunette scoffed. "And sneaking by the police and huntsmen into Grimm infested areas is perfectly reasonable?"

"Yep." At Ayame's blank and pointed look he said, "Alright, it isn't exactly the best thing a law abiding citizen would do, but you know I can be real sneaky when I need to be and the forestry provides plenty of cover."

"Still think it's a really stupid thing to do considering what's in there."

"I don't know what you're worried about. It's not like I'm allergic to the red sap in Forever Fall," he replied indifferently.

She smacked his shoulder. "You know what I mean, you idiot! What if you ran into an entire pack of beowolves and they ganged up on you?! What about the same but with ursai?!"

Naruto placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "Hey, take it easy. I stay as safe as I can." His words didn't exactly help but she calmed down a little until he easily said, "Besides, last night was the third beowolf pack I've run into."

"What?!"

"What's gotten you two so excited?" an older male voice asked.

Naruto and Ayame turned to see Teuchi Ichiraku emerge from the hallway in his full uniform and prepared for the day ahead.

"Nothing big, old man," Naruto replied with a greeting wave and squinted eyes to match the man's own.

"Yes, something big!" Ayame exclaimed. "He went to get himself attacked again yesterday and _apparently_ his little trips have been more dangerous than we've thought!"

"Obviously you haven't seen me fight."

"That's not the point!" Ayame looked off to the side and muttered, "We should've found some way to get you into a combat school, I swear…"

"You know perfectly well I couldn't afford it or get any of those fancy scholarships that I'm sure go to people with connections to actual huntsmen. I had to spend what I had on my base weapon anyway, and it was less than the personal forging costs over at Signal." The blonde took a moment to glance at the rested scabbard on the coffee table in front of him.

Teuchi sighed. "Naruto, you know that we were perfectly fine with paying for it."

"And you know that I couldn't let you do that. You've been saving that money for years to improve the restaurant and expand, and I'm not gonna be the reason for you to wait longer," Naruto sternly retorted. He honestly didn't think he could sleep at night knowing he delayed their dream. They haven't exactly been a failing business over the past decade, but the positive incline in sales in their modest restaurant had been very slow, slow enough to save very little at a time while spending on the necessities and living comfortably.

"You just had to be the stubborn type," Ayame whispered offhandedly.

"Damn straight, dattebayo!"

Ignoring the familiar verbal tick, the father continued the topic when he first walked in. "How bad was it this time, Naruto?"

"I… may or may not have had a tree fall on me more than once and a dismembered claw possibly found a temporary home in my thigh," he admitted sheepishly.

Ayame gaped at him. "You were out there for so long that your aura actually went down that much?! You never run out!"

The blond shrugged. "I was working on something special and it sorta drained me faster since I used it so much."

"Maybe you should tone down the training. You usually only have torn clothes, but if you can't be safe enough to stay away from physical injuries without proper control of whatever you're working on then you need to reconsider your options. We don't need a repeat of the first time you sneaked out on your own a few years ago," Teuchi ended grimly.

Naruto and Ayame flinched a tad thinking back to that memory, the former out of embarrassment and the latter just from the sight of the blond when he got back after the long trek.

Once Naruto was finally able to afford a quality weapon by working with the Ichirakus and doing odd jobs around Vale he got the smart idea to make his first excursion to the borders of Forever Fall. Long story short, Naruto got his ass handed to him since management of his aura was still rough and he had practically no fighting experience. He escaped with his life and his injuries weren't overly threatening due to his freakishly large aura healing him right away after the fight, but when it lowered enough he took some nasty shots. He didn't know how he managed to travel so far back without grabbing too much attention, but he sure as hell got an earful when he got caught going to his room with large portions of his shirt and pants hanging by mere threads with bloody stains.

He wasn't the brightest thirteen-year-old at the time… probably not even the brightest seventeen-year-old presently depending on who was asked…

And that was only with two beowolves. He'd be prouder of his progress since then if he didn't have such a rocky start, but he wasn't half bad without formal training in his humble opinion. He could've gotten an easier ride to combat schools by committing to the police or basic military service in places like Atlas, sure, but that wasn't what he wanted nor where he desired to travel at the moment. No, he wanted to stay in Vale and be among the best of the best in the world, perhaps _the_ best if he had his way.

And to be the best he had to be a huntsman, something that made Ayame overly anxious ever since the day he told her. Teuchi was more accepting, but he always figured it to be a possibility ever since the blond was younger. When asked by the female brunette as to why he chose the dangerous profession when he was twelve, he gave a short and sweet answer.

To protect, and to make _them_ proud.

So without having a completely beneficial way into Signal without making the Ichiraku family pay for it he just had to prepare himself for the combat tests anyone could take. For that to work he needed to be able to at least fight a simple damn beowolf without joining the great ramen goddess in the sky.

And what better way to prepare than to force himself into firsthand experience? It was ten times better than hitting a dummy or something, even if the general populace would agree he was as many times as stupid for doing so. Maybe he should've worked more to get a tutor…? Oh well, too late now. He already had to worry about paying rent and saving up for upgrades anyway.

Naruto shook his thoughts and gave the elder male a cheesy thumbs up. "I'm fine, old man! I'm not dying any time soon!" He paused to scrunch his face in thought. "At least not until I actually become a huntsman."

Ayame groaned and held her face in her hands. "You're going to give me gray hair soon, I just know it…"

Ignoring her, Naruto shot up from his seat to his six foot height and started making his way towards the room he rented in the little family home. He could've stayed for free but insisted that he would at least work for it and earn some extra money on the side along with whatever jobs he could do when he wasn't training.

"And take a shower! I'm not walking with you smelling like the rear end of a boarbutusk!" Ayame shouted behind him.

"Yeah, yeah!"

Cracking a smile Ayame stood up and made her way to finish getting ready herself.

Teuchi remained where he was, an amused smirk stressing tanned wrinkles while adjusting his signature hat. It was little moments like this that made him think of how less bright his and his daughter's lives would've been without the blond around.

He figured it was good for the young man as well. After all, he couldn't imagine what would've happened had he not found him on _that_ day.

"Is strawberry shampoo seriously all that's left?! You used the rest of mine, didn't you, ya old fart?!"

"Ha!"

Teuchi chuckled while walking downstairs to the kitchen.

Oh yes, couldn't imagine a life without him.

* * *

The pair briskly walked along the sidewalk, both sharing idle conversation while their hair smelled gloriously of strawberries. Ayame had her arms locked behind her back only to be broken from waving to the occasional early bird that greeted them. Naruto joined in the greetings as well but he was more cheerful about it with his bright smile and hands behind his head carelessly.

"So, is going to the market all we're doing?" Naruto asked with a single brow raised.

"Nope. Since you gave me extra sewing work for later along with the fact you happened to forget helping me today, I suddenly had the impulse to make more stops along the way and back. Doesn't that sound fun?" she asked while giving him an all too sweet smile.

Oh, he definitely knew that expression… It was used whenever she was giving him some sort of punishment and it looked like this time it was as a human pack mule. He just prayed he wasn't going to be _convinced_ to cough up some lien of his own for her devices. The last time she did after he made her mad, his poor little Gama went from her fat and happy self to a shriveled green husk.

He swears to this day that the little toad wallet's eyes have never looked the same.

"Yeah… total 'yippee' and 'wahoo' kind of fun," he replied with his best fake smile.

He knew she saw right through him yet she didn't change her chipper mood. "Well, I'm glad you think so since I've had my eyes on some stuff for a while and have even saved up a good amount of spending money. I think some of it's on sale too!"

"Yay…"

And on they went, taking the better part of three hours walking around, browsing and purchasing whatever caught the brunette's eyes with Naruto carrying it all. They both knew they had to be back by ten, but Ayame was making the most of whatever shops were available.

It was when the blond could barely see over the pile of goods wrapped in his arms that he was led into their apparent last stop.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. How can I- oh, good morning, Ayame," a slightly rough male voice greeted.

"Morning, Tukson. Rearranging things again?" Ayame responded with a polite smile.

The muscular man set down a large stack of books he was carrying from the back and gave the young woman a slightly abashed grin. "Hopefully for the last time, yes. Unfortunately, having so much product come in makes organizing everything a little annoying."

"Is that why you said that line or whatever that was? To show you have everything?" the other male questioned.

The shop owner curiously looked behind Ayame only to see the legs and arms of someone carrying a hefty load even bigger than the one he just let down. Thankfully, the spiky yellow hair peeking over the top tipped off the mysterious guest instantly.

"Do something stupid again, Naruto?" the black-haired male asked with some amusement.

"You can't prove anything, dattebayo!" He would probably be more embarrassed if he actually cared that much of making an image. Sure, he was eccentric and had his moments, but he doubted the older man would ever treat him differently regardless. He could honestly say that Tukson was a cool guy after he did some small jobs for the shop when he first got settled into the city a little over a year ago. Plus, it helped that the man had _awesome_ sideburns.

Tukson chuckled lightly. "And yes, I'm trying out a catchphrase. Have to make the business more legit somehow, right?"

Already going through some of the new selection of books Ayame said, "I'm sure you'll be fine without it, but I guess a little flair never hurts."

"That's what I'm going for. Anyway, what can I do for you both?"

The brunette audibly snapped a book shut and quickly replaced it with another. "Just looking, and giving Naruto some strength training on the side," she said cheekily.

"You say that as if this is heavy for me!" the blond retorted smugly before continuing curiously. "But since we're here, are the new comics in?"

"Already piled up on the counter for ya," Tukson replied with a head gesture behind him, not that the blond saw the action.

"Thanks!" He would've gone to grab them if not for his current predicament, something he realized quickly. "Um, Ayame?"

"Hm?"

"Can you please get them for me?"

She took a moment to maybe find a way to mess with him further, but figured he'd been good enough so far and decided against it. "Sure." She went and grabbed the colorful pile of pictured fantasy and action before speaking to Tukson again. "So, has the _Third Crusade_ come in yet? It feels like it's been forever since I requested it."

Tukson frowned ever so slightly. "Sorry, not yet. There was a mishap with the ordering so it's gonna take a while longer, especially with the delivery route being as long and risky as it is."

Ayame let out a minor sigh. "Oh well, I have some others to finish anyway."

"You'll be fine being a little more patient. It's not like being without it for now is the end of the world," the man replied.

Ayame walked over and placed the comics on top of everything else Naruto was carrying. "I guess so, but you might want to rethink that slogan then," she said jokingly.

"Nah, that took too long to figure out the first time. It'll work itself out."

"Hopefully it does. Well, we probably wasted enough of the morning. Naruto and I should get back before the stand opens. Hope you have a good day, Tukson," Ayame waved as she made her way to the front door.

"Later, sideburns!" Naruto added while following the female's lead.

"Have a good one," Tukson replied. As he watched them leave he took a moment to think to himself. Naruto and Ayame were two of the many local people that brought joy to his everyday life ever since he moved to the city. Surrounded by all kinds of literature and sharing it with others that enjoyed it was certainly a living he could see himself carrying on as long as he could.

It was definitely better than what he was doing before… which reminded him, he needed to check with his friend about any word of his presence attracting any attention.

If all was well then he didn't have to worry about using his backup plan and running to Vacuo.

* * *

"We're back!" Naruto shouted while aggressively passing through the hanged flaps at the front of the ramen stand, recently bought goods still held firmly in his arms.

"Good, I was beginning to think you two somehow got lost!" Teuchi exclaimed from the kitchen, visibly chopping up some vegetables.

"Well, we're not and we got everything." Ayame grabbed the three large paper bags of produce, spices and meat from Naruto. "Take the rest to my room, if you'd be so kind," she told the blond pleasantly.

Naruto rolled his eyes and mock bowed. "Of course, my queen! As a slave it's my bestowed duty, after all!" He started making his way to a doorway at the back of the kitchen that opened up to stairs. "And maybe after that I could clean the lady's personal quarters if she'd give me the honor?!" he echoed haughtily midway to the second floor.

"Sure, why else would we keep you around?!" Ayame exclaimed teasingly back while washing her hands. A smile formed on her face when she barely heard him grumble to himself before saying, "And since when do you use words like 'bestowed'?! Did you see it in a comic and look it up?!"

"Maybe!" he called back.

Ayame giggled to herself and stepped right into her duties alongside her father.

As usual the workday went by smoothly with Naruto helping in any way he could like cleaning the dining area and organizing whatever stock wasn't being used. He even made a few deliveries for some regulars that couldn't be bothered to face the lunch rush. They didn't necessarily have a delivery service for their business, but the people they did it for knew them pretty well and always gave a nice tip.

While all went by normally for everyone, Naruto was mentally planning out his own personal business for when he was no longer needed in the stand.

* * *

"Alright, everything seems ready…" Naruto muttered to himself while checking his supplies.

Fingerless black gloves fit well, the metal guards sewn over his knuckles and plates on the backs of his hands shiny to his liking. His unzipped and burned orange hoodie hugged him snugly and went well with his black shirt and its lone orange swirl in the middle of his chest. Black pants covered his legs and fit loosely over the black boots on his feet.

He turned to the mirror in his room to take this all in. His gaze momentarily lingered on the unique three facial marks on each cheek he'd had as far as he could remember and gingerly traced one with a finger.

If only he had a lien for every time he was confused for a faunus…

However, his eyes stared at something else longer, that being the pair of his most prized possessions securely wrapped around his neck. A dark blue cloth with a metallic plate sewn in the middle was easier to spot, as was the symbol of a swirl with a triangular tail of sorts hanging off of it engraved into the metal. Hidden underneath the sturdy cloth was most of a silver necklace chain that held its ornament just below the larger square piece of metal. The ornament itself was of round silver to match the chain but proudly displayed an orange swirl not unlike the one on his shirt along with an outer ring surrounding it of sky blue fading into black.

The headband and locket were the last remnants of his parents that he had besides what memories he could conjure up. He wore them everywhere he went and served as constant reminders of his goals and efforts. Both the symbol on the headband and swirl in the silver were even etched onto the metal plates on his gloves; swirl on the right and the other on the left.

The blond stared into his own eyes one last time before whispering, "Make 'em proud…" Walking by to quickly grab his blade resting on his dresser he started to walk out of the home and downstairs through the conjoined ramen stand. He tried to look as uninteresting as possible but he just had to love orange too much.

"And where are you going?" Ayame asked sternly behind him right as he was about to reach the exit.

Naruto froze in his tracks and slowly turned around to meet the brunette's suspicious eyes with her hands firmly on her hips.

It didn't help that she had a big ladle at the ready…

They stared at each other in silence, one more anxious than the other.

"Um… out?" Naruto responded.

"Uh-huh, so what requires you to take your weapon along?" she asked pointing to the hilt peeking over his shoulder.

"Y'know… stuff… totally safe and family-friendly stuff… Besides, it's a habit for any huntsman to take his weapon everywhere, right?"

Ayame marched right to him and poked him in the chest with conviction. As she looked up to his taller frame she said, "You are not seriously taking off again when you were out just last night… _are you_?"

The blonde repressed a shiver. "Oh, sweet, lovable, beautiful Ayame-"

"Don't you even think of buttering me up!" she interrupted before calming down. "You don't need to push yourself this hard. Will you please take it easy this one time?"

Naruto sighed before taking her into small hug, which was returned after a small pause.

"I'll be fine, trust me. I've gotten used to what I've been trying to do and I need all the practice I can get."

He felt her sigh into his shoulder. "Just… please promise to be extra careful, alright? I really don't need to see you coming back looking like you were thrown into a garbage disposal."

He squeezed her reassuringly. "Promise." He pulled back and said, "I'll get back as soon as I can."

"You better." She gave him another quick hug and returned back to the kitchen where Teuchi was not so stealthily watching. The two males made eye contact and the elder Ichiraku made a shooing gesture with an encouraging smile.

Naruto nodded and parted the flaps of the shop's entrance to make his way east.

Ayame looked at his retreating back and let out a final sigh before turning to get started on washing the dishes at the back of the kitchen.

"It never changes," a middle-aged mother with her young son on the stool next to her let out wistfully.

"What doesn't?" Teuchi replied while wiping the counter.

The woman nudged her head to the entrance. "Saying goodbye to your loved ones as they go away on a mission. I should know, my husband is a huntsman and he's out of the kingdom at the moment."

Teuchi looked thoughtful for a moment then turned slightly to see his daughter tensely scrubbing a pot while completely stone-faced. He looked back to the mother and said, "I suppose so, but as long as he's still around to say goodbye to, we'll be fine."

* * *

The wind always felt great against his face. It never failed in giving a sense of freedom and adventure to the day ahead, or evening in his case. From rooftop to rooftop he continued running and jumping to his heart's content, feeling his hyperactive giddiness rejuvenate with every leap and pulse of aura to his feet. Some of those on the streets below gave notice as they watched the yellow and orange blur go by overhead, but most if not all were used to it. None were unfamiliar with the more eccentric tendencies a huntsman or huntress might display, but Naruto seemed to have cemented his presence over the years; enough to be ignored or even given a small greeting if the mood permitted it.

Arriving at the edge of the commercial district Naruto leaped off the roof of a small tailor shop and landed on the other side of the street. He took a second to lean his elbows on the guardrail bordering one of the many cliffs that separated each of Vale's districts. A large body of water was in front of him, one that connected westward to the vast ocean and directly toward the large island of Patch, a place still on his bucket list to visit properly someday.

To the east, however, simply made him smile before he took the initiative and vaulted over the safety rail to leap off the side of the rocky ridge. He heard a few squeaks of surprise from some bystanders behind him but didn't pay them any mind. He was sure that they would just dub his actions as simple 'huntsman' things, and they would be right to an extent since he wasn't exactly a student yet, let alone an official monster slayer.

To an outsider his little two hundred foot freefall might've seemed absolutely stupid, if not outright lethal, but his face was the epitome of calmness and even excitement. Immediately after his decent he managed to easily find a solid rock large enough to hold him as his body was hugging the massive wall. He landed with a minor thud and looked to have securely stuck to the boulder without any trouble or misbalance. He continued his downward journey in the same manner with rocks of all sizes until he reached a short slope of dirt and gravel. As if riding on a snowboard he slid on the loose dirt and launched himself off the small incline and fell a short drop to the tiny beach below.

After a satisfying landing he walked forward jauntily to the shore and didn't stop even when he was well within the water's domain. The thing with Naruto, though, was that his feet didn't sink. It seemed that he didn't follow the laws of nature as he seemingly continued to walk on the ocean's surface with nary a problem or second thought. Even when the particular spot he was walking on was disturbed by a wave he rode it out calmly without losing stride.

The action always made him mentally smirk. To think this was practically a mere passive ability.

He smiled when one of his favorite parts of the day was upon him. To his right the sun started to set upon Vale and he was already midway across the water. The great orb of fire cast its radiance on him and projected a sparkling sheen on the water's surface along with a magnificent yellowish orange glow. He turned his gaze to the left and watched as the newly colored water lead to one of the highest cliffs upon which rested Beacon Academy. Imagining the water as a road of yellow brick to the castle-like school seemed to click perfectly to him for some reason and was a sight surely to be admired by all.

Letting the moment pass after the last specks of daylight wasted away he started to pick up the pace by running along the water to meet the land of the Residential District. Just like before he defied logic and casually scaled up another rock face like he was taking a stroll on a sidewalk. No one noticed when he arrived at the top or even when he started another roof hopping trip. This time he went eastward and once again scaled a cliff, one that easily matched the tallest in the area. When he reached the top at his usual spot well enough outside of the academy proper he switched to tree hopping and headed towards the Emerald Forest.

* * *

"He's doing it again," a slightly annoyed female voice stated.

A short sipping sound was what responded first. "It appears so. He's certainly a dedicated one, isn't he?"

A frustrated sigh escaped the lone woman in the room. "I simply don't understand why you've let this go on for as long as it has."

Shaded spectacles turned away from the live camera feed on a personal scroll to the stern woman at his side. Her light blonde hair was in its usual bun with a curl framing the right side of her pale face—almost hiding her teal earrings—while her strict green eyes behind ovular glasses stared at the scroll's holographic screen. Her crossed arms along with the rest of her torso were held in a long-sleeved white pleated blouse while bronze buttons adorned the high-waist black pencil skirt she favored above her dark stockings that led to heeled brown boots. Covering her back was a uniquely styled cape that was internally purple while black on the outside. The tattered fringes on the bottom proudly displayed shapes of fire and arrows while aligned with her shoulders for all to see was a bronze tiara symbol above a line of similarly colored diamond-shaped beads. The last notable thing about her was her weapon firmly squeezed in her right hand. It wasn't a sharp blade of some sort or other kind of deadly instrument, but was in fact a black and purple riding crop.

"I'm sure you can think of something, Glynda." A hint of a smile made its way onto the male's sharp face. "By this point you should have some inkling of an idea."

Glynda moved to place her hands on her hips and gazed into his thinly opened brown eyes. "That's just the thing. Even now I still don't know exactly what's going on in that mind of yours, Ozpin."

The silver-haired man sounded out an amused grunt while adjusting the green cowl around his neck and taking a moment to play with the cross-shaped pin attached to it. "Care to take a guess anyway?"

The blonde rolled her eyes before she started waving her riding crop nonchalantly in the air while she said, "Oh, probably something to do with a huntsman's potential and embracing his youthful spirit or something else along those lines."

Ozpin kept his small grin and shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "Sure, let's go with that."

Glynda looked at him blankly but couldn't retort when the man now looking at his scroll spoke again.

"Ah, it seems it's going to be another pack of beowolves tonight," he said as if talking about the weather.

"All the more reason to stop him before he does something stupid and gets himself seriously injured! No one other than official huntsmen, huntresses or students with permission are allowed to be in the forest near school grounds."

"You give Mr. Uzumaki too little credit. I know you've been watching his progress as well as I have and it's easy to see he's certainly grown," he replied while watching the young man in question leap from a tree branch and straight into the pack of Grimm. "He definitely has the spirit to become a fine huntsman someday. It'll be interesting to see how far he'll progress." He took that time to take another sip of his favorite brew.

"That doesn't mean he can blatantly break the rules as he pleases! Are you even the tiniest bit concerned about what would happen if the public found out you were letting someone not even in combat school face Grimm like this?"

The headmaster brought his mug to his lips once again, secretly enjoying how annoyed the blonde looked at his laidback attitude. "Not in the least," he replied easily.

The huntress looked ready to lash out again but didn't let her emotions get the better of her. Instead, she let out a big exhale and rubbed her temple to ward off any hint of an oncoming headache. "At the very least can we take some sort of precaution in case he comes across something he can't handle? Just watching him shouldn't be enough to ensure safety." When she didn't get a response she opened her eyes and looked at the tousled silver hair on the back of Ozpin's head, showing his eyes were completely glued to the live video. "Professor Ozpin?" she questioned.

What the blonde couldn't see was the male's smile widening just a tad at seeing the enthusiastic Naruto suddenly becoming enveloped in an orange glow as he faced down a few leaping beowolves. "Looks like he's finally gotten the hang of it…" he mumbled to himself.

"Professor Ozpin?" the woman stated a bit more sternly.

His attention back to his companion, Ozpin merely graced her with the barest of glances as he said, "Oh, you need not worry." He pressed the holographic screen to bring in another feed in a split screen view. "He's well supervised, I assure you."

Not knowing what he meant, Glynda took a step forward and looked down at the scroll. What her eyes saw made her internally groan as she brought her hand back up to cover her green orbs in exasperation. "I don't necessarily think that's supposed to calm my nerves," she groused. "Did you know about this? What are you trying to accomplish?"

Ozpin was silent, but the easygoing atmosphere he exuded spoke volumes. "It's like you said. Maybe I'm just trying to see potential blossom from a youthful spirit. It is basically what our positions are about, isn't it?"

"Within proper means, yes. This off the books activity isn't something that should be encouraged and could lead to trouble," she replied smoothly.

Ozpin turned his seat to her. "Wouldn't be the first time we've had to keep secrets."

Glynda sighed. "You know what I mean."

Yet again another sip. "Don't worry too much. It'll all be fine." The man looked back at his scroll and relaxed himself in his seat, looking all like the calm professional his black suit and natural presence permitted him. "Now enjoy the little show he's putting on. It looks like he finally managed to control one of the abilities he's been struggling with. Seems he's been practicing somewhere else since the last time he's been in Emerald Forest."

Even if her face didn't show it Glynda was at least a bit interested in the young man's development. After seeing so much trial and error why not see the fruits of his labor and quell her curiosity?

"Let's see if he manages to not blast himself through a tree this time," she stated.

* * *

He could never hold in his excitement whenever his skills were properly put to the test, especially if the fight he was in wasn't overly life-threatening and he remained in control. Thankfully he was able to use that excitement to fuel his combat hardiness and focus instead of being sloppy and impatient. This was unfortunate for the pack of Grimm he was engaged in battle with, as shown by one of the young beowolves having its right arm slashed off by the same blade that immediately found its tip stabbed through its canine skull and out the bottom of its jaw.

With a quick squelch the short blade was pulled out of the quickly fading body before its dull side was gingerly rested on the blond's shoulder. "Alright, which one of you ugly bastards want to go next?!" Naruto hollered with a mischievous smirk plastered on his face. The only response he got were growls from about a dozen sources, yet he wasn't deterred at all. These were relatively young and therefore less tactful examples of their species, so there wasn't much to worry about as long as he didn't make any stupid mistakes. Even so, it seemed they learned at least a little bit as three decided to quickly charge in together as opposed to the one on one fight that ended quickly prior.

Seeing the perfect opportunity Naruto prepared himself as he stood still. Almost instantly a protective shield of orange energy surrounded his body and the light it protruded seemed to move wavily in several layers before it settled into one solid cover. It was almost unnoticeable if not for the occasional sparkle of orange shining on random parts of his body. His opponents didn't notice the action or they simply didn't care enough to deem it a threat, so they pressed on with full intent to kill.

When they were within striking distance they lashed out with claws extended, one going for his face while the other two went for his left and right side. Even with the attacks coming Naruto didn't falter or even attempt to raise his weapon now placed at his side. That was all well and good to the oncoming Grimm, but they didn't expect the outward force and simultaneous orange flash that blasted them backwards once their claws tried to pierce the young man's skin. Now stunned on the ground, the three monsters didn't have a chance to defend themselves from the quick execution of slashes to their throats, ending their lives and making their bodies start to evaporate in shadowy flakes and wisps.

With those three gone Naruto decided to cut any more waiting and charged right at the other snarling beasts that started to surround him. With a quick battle cry he and one of the creatures quickly met in the small clearing they were engaging each other in. Predictably the beowolf tried to slash at him with its claws but the whiskered teen deflected their sharp points to the side with the metal plate on the back of his left hand. Before the beast could attack again Naruto thrust his right hand forward, punching it in the jaw with the blunt handguard on the blade's handle covering his fingers. Its face knocked to the side, Naruto took the opening and fatally stabbed it straight through its chest.

Not wasting any time Naruto spun himself and the Grimm still stuck on his blade around to block another clawed attack. Withdrawing his weapon from the dead beowolf the blond jumped high over the corpse and chopped the head off of his next opponent, looking like a human guillotine as he came down with a downward cut on the back of its neck.

Half of his enemies now defeated Naruto surrounded his body once again with a quick glint of orange aura and charged at three others. The dark monster up front tried to sink its jaws into the blond but Naruto simply leaned forward with his shoulder like he was going for a tackle. What happened instead was both satisfying to the lone human and deadly to one of the many monsters of Remnant. The moment their bodies made contact an orange flash once again enveloped the dark area before the beowolf was launched back to where it came from. With the speed behind Naruto's run there was more force put into the controlled blast, causing his opponent to crash into the two others along with one of the many nearby trees.

Splintered wood resembled shrapnel as the three bodies halved the large trunk instantaneously. Some luck seemed to watch over Naruto as two of the Grimm started fading away once the dust settled, one from a visibly broken neck while the other had a particularly big chunk of wood piercing its sternum. The creature that took the force of the orange blast firsthand was slow to get up, ultimately costing it when Naruto quickly launched forward and roughly stuck his weapon through the natural white armor on its cranium.

Satisfied with the Grimm's sudden stillness Naruto moved to take the blade out of his kill, but found the angle a little awkward and started to annoyingly struggle. It took a few adjustments and a couple of hard pulls but he got it out with a rough cleaving sound.

Righting himself from the short wobble the blond weighed his partner in crime in his hand and muttered, "This will all be easier when I finally get you to a forge soon." He didn't feel any of the other beowolves behind him move to attack and smirked. "And you'll be an even bigger threat than you are now, won't you, sweetheart?" He rubbed the metal fondly and was about turn around to attack the rest when a sudden presence made itself known.

He didn't see what happened right away, but he sure as hell heard it. Two quick slashes through flesh followed by a loud bang shook his ears and the surrounding forest. Realizing the intruder was definitely not just another Grimm, Naruto slowly turned around to gauge the possible threat.

The shattered moon in the night sky shined its light on a single man standing in front of the three fading beowolves, and the first thing that caught the blond's eye was the weapon he wielded. It was an intimidating single-edged greatsword relaxingly held in his right hand. The long handle was red, the blade and handguards silver and the hilt interestingly filled with some sort of cog system being black. When Naruto looked closer he saw what looked like two gun barrels still letting out some smoke resting on either side of the large blade.

The man himself had graying black hair, a pale complexion with a slight stubble lining his jawline, a tattered red cloak hanging over his back, a gray dress shirt that had a long tail, and black dress pants and dress shoes. The blond could also barely make out the reflection of several rings on his right hand along with the crooked cross-shaped pendant around his neck. The last feature that was taken in were the crimson eyes he had that seemed to be taking him in as well.

After the stranger sized Naruto up, the weapon retracted to a more manageable traveling size and was placed securely at his lower back. After the quick action the two males simply stared at one another. Naruto was tense since it didn't take more than a few brain cells to realize the man was a fully-fledged huntsman and who knows what kind of trouble could come of this. The man, however, looked utterly calm and didn't really show any outward emotion. The silence was agonizing to Naruto but it kept prolonging until the huntsman reached behind him and pulled out a flask. He took a long swig from it and gave out a satisfied sigh when he was done. Another moment of silence passed until the man gestured to the flask and spoke.

"You want some?" he asked in a slightly scratchy and naturally slurred voice.

Naruto didn't know what to say. "Um…" he sounded in reply.

"Well too bad because it's all gone," the man quickly interrupted as he gave the empty flask a quick shake to show what remained of its contents before he put it back in its proper place. "What're ya doin' out here, kid?"

Naruto didn't speak immediately but found his voice after a moment. "It's a little obvious, isn't it?" he countered.

The older man gave a quick once over to what was left of the fading Grimm in the clearing and indifferently shrugged. "I suppose it is. I guess the real question is _why_?"

Naruto gave his own shrug and mirrored the man's laidback posture. "Have to stay in shape somehow."

"And with that little machete of yours you thought you might as well slay some monsters in the middle of the night by yourself?"

Naruto looked down at the short and straight blade. His right hand squeezed the comfortable black grip protected by the melee capable handguard of the same color while his left fingers tenderly ran themselves along the blade's black body, sharp and silver edge, and the curved tip. "Not all of us need to overcompensate for something," Naruto replied easily.

A hint of a smirk showed on the man's face while a small chuckle rang from his throat. "All I'm hearing is jealousy, but I guess you have to work with what you got."

Naruto felt a grin of his own form from the wordplay. "Well-" He tried to talk again but flinched when the huntsman was suddenly in his face with the greatsword drawn. A loud clang echoed when the blond managed to block the attempted slash on his person with both hands holding his weapon firmly. With arms slightly buckled Naruto quickly pushed away and backed up a couple of steps. "What the hell was that for?!"

Like before the man was calm with the exception of a raised brow. He retracted his weapon to half its size once again and put it away. "Good reaction time and some decent muscle," he muttered to himself.

"What are you going on about, old man?!"

This time there was more of a reaction in the form a small frown and the twitch of a brow. "First of all, it's Qrow, not old man. Second, why should I tell a rude brat anything?"

"Wha- becau- how the hell am I the rude one?! You attacked me, dattebayo!"

Qrow broke his frown and simply looked a little curious while whispering 'dattebayo' to himself questionably. He broke that train of thought and gave Naruto a slow realization expression. "Oh yeah," he slurred, "still rude, though."

The blond was at a loss for words. He didn't have the slightest clue on how to judge the situation. Should he just run? Attack him in return? No, that would probably end with him getting his ass kicked… and wow the guy really reeked of alcohol now that he thought about it.

That sort of explains his mannerisms, but doesn't exactly help the situation much.

Getting to the point, Naruto asked, "So what now?"

"Hm?"

"Am I in trouble or something?"

Qrow took a second to hum to himself. "Probably not," he answered.

"…"

"…"

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yep."

"So… am I free to go?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh." Naruto blinked a few times and steadily sheathed his blade into its leather home. "Welp… I guess I'll go then…"

"Uh-huh."

Naruto carefully turned and began to walk, taking a moment or two to look over his shoulder every few steps to make sure the man didn't move to follow him. It was when he was about to reach the heavier foliage that Qrow talked again.

"Y'know… trespassing on some major private property isn't exactly good to have on record, especially for someone who wants to be a huntsman." His voice stopped Naruto dead in his tracks. "You never know when someone might have a reason to sabotage the initiation grounds, or maybe even map out the area to attack the school or something."

"And who said I was doing that?" Naruto called out after a pause.

Qrow shrugged. "No one, but the possibility is still there and that alone is a huge concern for any self-respecting huntsmen academy."

* * *

Blankly looking at the screen, Glynda plainly asked, "And how concerned are you?"

Ozpin smiled. "I'm not, and Qrow knows it."

* * *

"Can't I just get a warning or something? Isn't that how these things usually go?" Naruto replied.

"You're saying that as if this is the first time you've been out here."

Naruto quickly turned and faced him. "And how do you-"

"Wave to the audience, kiddo," Qrow interjected while casually waving to a nearby boulder.

"What?" the blond uttered before quickly walking to the waist high rock and leaning in for a closer look. It was hard to pick out at first, but he was able to barely see a concealed camera refocusing its lens as his face got close. Naruto stepped back and silently took in the information. "Well, shi-"

"Yep." Qrow stood next to him and planted his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Like I said, on record."

"And what does that exactly mean for me?" Naruto asked while blankly staring at the camera.

"Can't say for certain. Different kingdoms mean different rules." Qrow broke physical contact and innocently looked at the moon while exaggerating a thinking posture. "Could've possibly been shot on sight in Atlas, accepted with open arms and a gift basket in Vacuo, and I wouldn't put it past some of those cultural types in Mistral to ask you how you felt while fighting and then writing a poem about it." That was a very simplistic way of putting it given Atlas's militaristic outlook, Vacuo's acceptance of those that could survive in their harsh environment, and Mistral's very artistic community, although for the latter that only really applied to the upper class of the population.

Not that Qrow cared. He just said what his buzzed mind could quickly think of.

"And Vale?" Naruto sounded.

Qrow shrugged and lazily looked at him over his shoulder. "You'll probably see soon enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hell if I know," Qrow replied. With hands in his pockets he started to walk away towards the clearing where he made his entrance.

"Then why did you even come out here, dattebayo?!" Naruto called to the retreating man. "To get into my head before you assassinate me or something?!"

"Or something," the man retorted casually and continued his leisurely stroll.

"That doesn't help anything, dattebayo!"

"Gesundheit!" Qrow exclaimed before his body disappeared into the forest.

"I didn't sneeze!" Naruto yelled. After letting out an aggravated sigh, the blond teen pseudo-glared down at the rock camera and pointed at it. "If I get killed, I'm gonna haunt the ever loving hell out of whoever's watching. And trust me, I know I can be an annoying ghost!" He then walked backwards while still pointing and gave his best 'I'm warning you' stare until he was officially out of its range of sight.

Now making his way back home after the little bit of excitement, all that could be heard from Naruto were some mutterings about some of his possible ghostly provocations, such as hiding someone's scroll or turning a sink faucet on in the middle of the night just enough to wake the home's occupants up or even force them to leave the comfort of their bed because they suddenly had to relieve themselves.

Yeah, that'd show whoever was messing with him that he meant business.

Sadly, thoughts about ghosts and the paranormal in general didn't mix well with a walk in a dark and dangerous forest…

* * *

"What was the point of involving Qrow?" Glynda asked.

Ozpin leveled his gaze on the screen while his many security cameras kept up with the wandering teen as he started his tree hopping journey back towards the general public of Vale. The blond also seemed a little on edge as he rapidly looked around at his quickly passing surroundings warily. The headmaster didn't think the change in mood had anything to do with their viewing of him so he mentally shrugged it off. "Simply making a connection."

"For what exactly? With him taking care of the beowolves that easily it doesn't seem like he'll have any trouble passing the combat tests."

Ozpin sipped his mug. "All around the world there are many talents just waiting to come into their own. Whether they are able to grow by themselves or with some instruction doesn't mean they can't get a little _push_ once in a while to help them become something greater."

"But why him?" She didn't have anything necessarily against the young man—well, besides his apparent lack of attention to rules—but she was genuinely curious.

"Let's just say I have a good feeling and leave it at that." He watched as Naruto continued his anxious jumping through the trees. The blond's tempo was completely halted, however, as a flying squirrel whizzed on by his face, causing him to simultaneously reach for his weapon in panic while also tripping over a branch. The result was him letting out a shout of fright as he careened towards some bushes below.

Watching dust and leaves explode from where Naruto made his rough landing, all Ozpin said was, "Something greater indeed."

* * *

"Naruto, I need you over here!" Teuchi shouted from the living room of his small upstairs home. It was a mere hour before he was going to open shop and what he saw on his computer immediately got his full attention.

The sound of footsteps followed by a yawn was heard from the hallway. "What is it, old man? You know I like to sleep in whenever I get back late."

The elder Ichiraku turned in his chair to meet Naruto's drowsy eyes. "I'm pretty sure you already had your eight hours since you got back at midnight."

Naruto shrugged. "I'm a growing boy."

Teuchi mentally rolled his eyes. "Anyway, that's not important. Do you have anything planned today?"

The blond blinked. "Besides the usual, not really."

"Good, because I have a very important delivery for you."

Naruto walked up to the computer screen that was mainly used for the business. He could easily make out the online order page that was occasionally used by people wanting to make a quick pick up or even delivery if his availability permitted it. Naruto leaned over Teuchi's shoulder and began muttering the information to himself.

"Let's see… five bowls, so it's not some catering thing, and it was ordered by…" Naruto's eyes widened, "Qrow Branwen?!"

Oh crap, exactly how much info did the drunk have?

"Do you know him?" Teuchi asked after being startled from the outburst.

"Um… sorta."

"And what does 'sorta' mean?" Ayame questioned while walking in from her room, white uniform on and blue apron tied securely around her waist.

"He… might be a huntsman that I may have run into at the forest last night…"

"Wait, you were caught?! What happened?!" the woman sternly asked.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "Pretty much nothing."

"Nothing at all?" she questioned with her hands on her hips.

"It was just some random talk."

"About?"

"Um…" Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "I'm not sure exactly. There was some stuff about weapons, the kingdoms, punishments like being shot- but it's okay!" he proclaimed in a rush when he saw Ayame's eyes expand in fear. "I'm pretty sure nothing is going to happen. I think the worst that can happen is blackmail."

"Why?" Teuchi inquired calmly.

"Well… it turns out I've been watched for a while in the Emerald Forest. Apparently there's cameras all over the place and from how he was talking, Beacon is definitely aware." He nervously smiled and tried to weakly laugh it off.

Ayame sighed. "I knew this was going to blow up in your face one day."

"Hey, look. I didn't get any threatening vibes from the guy, so there's probably nothing to worry about." He paused. "Well, he did try to cleave me in half with his giant sword- moving on!" He swore he was heightening the poor girl's blood pressure by the second if her facial expression was anything to go on. "What makes this so important?" he asked Teuchi hoping to get back on track before Ayame got on his case again.

"Oh, right," Teuchi started, "What makes it so important is what he wrote in the special request box."

Naruto leaned towards the screen once again and read where he left off. "Okay, if I get it there within an hour after opening then- wait, he's offering to pay how much?!" he shouted. "It's just five bowls! Why is there a comma in the price?!"

"I don't know, but if you do this it'd be a nice profit," Teuchi replied.

"And how do you know he's not just messing with us?" Naruto questioned skeptically.

Teuchi opened up another tab, this time showing a bank account. "Because he already forwarded the money, but it's only pending until it's delivered on time. If it isn't then with such a small order it wouldn't be a problem to demand a refund for being unsatisfied."

"Okay," Naruto muttered a little more confidently, "I don't know what he's playing at, but this could be easy money!"

"That's just the thing. It won't be as easy as you think, even with your speed." Teuchi pointed to the last bit of info on the screen.

Naruto looked closely before leaning back in slight confusion.

"He wants me to go to Patch?"

* * *

(Omake – The Hero Vale Doesn't Deserve… or Need)

It was another normal morning for Ayame Ichiraku in her small family ramen stand. She was setting up everything in the kitchen with practiced precision alongside her father and all was looking up to be busy as usual, even more so since it was the weekend.

They both had a nice rhythm going with the chopping of ingredients and the kneading of the dough that would become their signature ramen. It was when the young brunette was about to pick up the prepared dough that she and her father heard some muffled shouting from upstairs.

Knowing the exuberance of their other resident there wasn't much of a reaction, yet Ayame went to check just to be safe.

As she made her way up the stairs and past the living room the excited ramblings continued and were getting louder. When she reached the last door in the hallway she gave two firm knocks.

"Naruto, what are you doing in there?" she called.

"Ayame! You gotta see this!" the boy shouted with unrestrained enthusiasm.

Curiosity peaked, the girl twisted the knob and opened the door. The room was the same as the last time she saw it with the bed unkempt, some articles of clothing here and there, and a small leaning tower of comic books placed on the dresser.

But the room's resident wasn't in sight.

"Naruto?"

"Up here!"

Ayame let out a small shriek of surprise as the voice came from above her. She immediately looked up and was frozen where she stood. There, somehow standing completely upside down on the ceiling was Naruto. He had a big megawatt smile highlighting the remaining baby fat and whiskers on his twelve-year-old face.

"How are you doing that?!" Ayame yelled.

"I don't know but it's awesome! I tried to kill a bug on the wall with my foot and I somehow stuck before I walked up! This must be what a semblance is! It's like I have superpowers!" He took the time to crouch and maintained his position with a squinted thinking expression. "I should come up with a name if I'm going to become some sort of superhero huntsman, though. Maybe… Man-Spider! Or…" He stood and let his unzipped orange windbreaker fall. He grabbed the bottom hem of either side and spread it out, giving the impression that he had wings. "Man-Bat! Defender of-!"

Sadly, at that point whatever was keeping Naruto stuck decided to fail, causing the blond boy to experience gravity's unforgiving laws as he fell flat onto his back. Following the loud bang of the impact on the floor was the audible wheezy groan that usually came after someone got the wind knocked of them.

"Naruto, are you okay?!" the older teen shouted in worry as she doted on the blond and rested his head on her lap.

Taking a moment to get his lungs under control, Naruto hoarsely muttered, "The… the world isn't ready for me yet…"

Having felt the moment pass, Ayame smiled and calmly raked her fingers through his spiky hair.

"I don't think it ever will be."

* * *

 **AN: Hello there, readers. If you made it this far by actually reading this little opening chapter, I thank you for taking the time to do so. This was a little pet project that I worked on for the past month whenever I had the time between work and other life-related stuff. For those that are followers of my other stories, sorry if I've been pretty absent for a while, but that's just how my muse has been lately. Don't ever know when I'll have a strike of inspiration or how much I'll get written down when I do. For anyone who has never seen my work, welcome! I hope I don't disappoint.**

 **Not much else to say besides this was to simply introduce some basic plot pieces, characterization and general world building. If you have questions about things like Naruto's weapon and semblance, hopefully they'll be answered in the coming chapters. And if you'd be so kind, let me know your thoughts of whatever came to mind in a review, such as opinion on the pacing and dialogue, personal speculation of what's to come, general reaction, or criticism. All is welcome to help me improve so don't be shy.**

 **Oh, I'd also like to thank** **Fan-Of-FictionX01 for being a bud to bounce ideas off of and helping correct any grammatical errors that I didn't catch before posting. As a bonus he's also a competent medic in Battlefield 1 when my ass gets shot, so there's that.**

 **Remember kids, if you're among the many that pass by my revivable corpse with nary a glance, I want your headphones to break. :)**

 **Once again, thanks for reading! And if you celebrate it, I hope you have a merry Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever!**

 **Later!**


	2. Patching Things Up

**AN: Welp, would've been done sooner but life and all that. More at the bottom.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Patching Things Up**

Sounds of hurried footsteps and the metallic clangs of various cooking utensils rang throughout the modest ramen kitchen. Teuchi and Ayame were working strenuously trying to get the five bowl order done quickly in order to give Naruto as much extra traveling time as possible. The blond himself was patiently waiting near the counter with his usual attire of orange and black after a fresh shower, which reminded him that he forgot to pick up some of his own shampoo while he and Ayame were shopping the day before.

As he watched the duo make the final preparations he couldn't help but have his arms crossed and foot tapping as he thought of what this all meant for him. At first he simply shrugged off the weirdness of the events from the previous night and the new development the following morning, but when one settles into a shower they always turn into a deep thinker on par with serious philosophers.

And think he did.

Honestly, what was this Qrow guy doing? There wasn't really any hostility besides that one strike he had to block, but he did it with an almost uninterested and laidback demeanor as if the whole thing wasn't any big deal at all. Was that some sort of test or did he get a kick out of messing with people? Given some stories about some of the more peculiar huntsmen he wouldn't completely count out the latter. Even so, this whole thing was confusing to him, but he supposed that ordering ramen to meet wasn't exactly the worst thing that could happen. Some of the scenarios he thought up consisted of a lot more mental and physical trauma, so he'd readily take getting paid for something he's done plenty of times even with a time limit attached.

"Okay, ready!" Ayame called out, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts while she securely placed the tightly sealed bowls into a backpack for him to carry.

"And just before opening," Teuchi commented while wiping his hands on a small towel. "Everything else is all you, Naruto."

The blond walked over to the bag before properly placing it over his shoulders while minding the sheathed blade already residing there. "Alright, so an hour… shouldn't be too bad," he stated.

"Hopefully it isn't, but make sure to be careful while you get there. We don't need you arriving with time to spare only to show that you spilled everything," Ayame stated sternly.

Naruto shrugged. "It's not like I have much room to be careful in the first place. Taking a boat would be too slow to risk so I have to go on the water myself."

"Have you walked on water that long?" Teuchi asked.

"Nope, but first time for everything, I guess."

"Just do your best." Ayame stepped closer to look up and straight into the blond's eyes. "I don't know what this Qrow wants, but you need to keep an eye on him. I don't care if he's a Vale huntsman, always be suspicious and watch your back."

Naruto rolled his eyes a little. "Okay, _mom_." He chuckled to himself. "C'mon, don't worry yourself too much. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack before you're thirty."

The brunette smacked his shoulder lightly. "I wouldn't have to worry if you didn't attract so much trouble."

Teuchi meanwhile quietly nodded and scrunched up his face in agreement with his daughter, but ultimately went unnoticed.

The teen male playfully scoffed. "I'll be fine, alright?" He tapped the handle of his weapon. "Besides, I got little miss sharp and pointy here to tear him a new one if anything happens."

"Didn't you say he had a giant sword?" Ayame questioned.

"Yeah."

"And he seemed older and way more experienced than you?"

"Your point?"

Ayame blankly looked at him and gently patted his whiskered cheek a couple of times before walking away to open the shop. "Yeah, good luck with that."

The blond watched her walk away quietly before saying, "Y'know, your lack of confidence in me isn't exactly helping!"

"You don't need it! You always find some crazy way to get out of things!" she cried back.

"A little extra support doesn't hurt, though…" he muttered.

Teuchi chuckled and firmly placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You don't need us to say anything. You know that we're always here when you need us, whether that be wishing you luck or making bail if you overstep your boundaries."

"What the hell's that supposed to mea-"

Teuchi started pushing him towards the entrance hurriedly. "Now go. You're already wasting daylight."

After regaining his footing next to Ayame as she was lifting the metal security gate at the storefront, he checked to make sure he had everything he needed. Nodding to himself in satisfaction he walked past the curtained flaps and into the sunshine of the streets. Ayame followed him out and said, "Come back in one piece."

Naruto gave her a cheeky grin. "We'll see." He then quickly applied aura to his feet and leaped onto the roof of the building across the street and started making his way west towards the docks.

The woman watched him disappear from sight near instantaneously and sharply blew a lingering bang of hair away from face. "Yep, a heart attack before thirty…"

* * *

"I should've done this a long time ago!" Naruto shouted in excitement as he slid down the surface of a particularly large wave caused by a passing passenger ship coming from Patch. Those leaning over the rail watching him seemed to share in his emotion as he received a few whistles and yells in encouragement.

The cocky smirk he wore as result, however, did change to a pure smile of nostalgic happiness when he glanced over and saw several kids gaze at his actions in complete awe, causing him to give a wave in greeting. The way one of them was simultaneously pointing at him and excitedly grabbing the sleeve of his father reminded him of himself as a kid watching the Vytal festival tournament for the first time and seeing some of the amazing things the competing huntsmen and huntresses were able to do.

It was one of the points in his younger life that kick-started his aspirations to become a huntsman among other things, and if he just did the same for someone else at that age then he felt pretty damn good about it.

That is, of course, as long as the kid isn't stupid like him and decides to chase down big scary monsters deep in the forest… Other than that the kid was golden if he decided to pursue that path.

The moment passed when the ship started getting further away while his running settled onto calmer waters. If he was right about how long it'd been so far then he had a pretty good shot of making the delivery on time. That'd only happen if he kept up his pace but he was sure he could keep going strong with the remaining aura he had. As confident as he was he was still feeling the effort he was putting in. Usually it'd take a lot of fighting beforehand to even get him tired, and even more so to drain his aura to the point where its natural barrier faded away, but keeping a constant focus on the flow of energy to his feet was slowly but surely wearing him down.

It wasn't necessarily anything to worry about. It was just something slightly foreign to him since it didn't happen often. Hell, if he wanted to he could use this as some sort of regular training exercise to make him more of a tank than he already was.

That would have to wait, though, since the large island of Patch just entered his vision and was steadily becoming larger.

"Time to see what you want, old man."

* * *

"Where the hell is this house supposed to be?!" Naruto exclaimed in frustration as he tree hopped through the forest that covered a large majority of the island. He already expected it to be a bit of a pain to find considering he wasn't given an exact address and didn't know the area, but the vast forestry and various dirt paths to choose from didn't help at all.

"And the prick only said it was a log cabin north of the city and that I couldn't miss it… damn it…"

At this point he was already feeling the sweat become more apparent on his face, one part from the physical exertion while the other from his increasingly rising nerves. He was running low on time and quickly at that if the clock tower he spotted in the city earlier was anything to go by.

So on he went, desperately sprinting in every direction possible hoping to catch an inkling of a clue. He tried climbing up a tree to see anything resembling his target, but the woods were too thick. Thankfully, it was when he was at the point of almost absolute surrender that he chanced by a small farmhouse with an elderly couple that pointed him in the right direction. After that he raced off with a hurried thanks and panic settling into his mind. Every second that went by was agonizing but he knew he had to keep pushing forward since he'd already come this far. If not for the money then he at least wanted to fulfill his curiosity over the whole matter.

It took forever in his mind but he finally found the correct path to the house that was described to him.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" he chanted to himself as he made the final march to his destination. Once he broke the tree line and entered the clearing that was the main property he had to admit that the place looked a lot better than he thought it was going to be.

With a sizable two-story cabin house, a neat little shed nearby, a flower garden lining the building's front wall along with a porch and large chimney on its left side, it was easy to imagine the place as a really peaceful family setting, one many would be grateful to ever have. Naruto actually slowed his pace to barely a jog once he got close to admire the area and settled into a walk for the last few steps to the front entrance.

With an exaggerated exhale to signify the end of his journey he raised his fist and gave the wooden door several firm knocks. The silence was deafening for a moment but it ended quickly as he heard cool and composed footsteps approach. The knob soon turned and the form of Qrow Branwen was revealed.

Once the door was fully opened the two males stared at each other with blank expressions, one with slight annoyance and sweat and the other with utter tranquility and even boredom. Naruto didn't know how to proceed but Qrow broke the standstill by reaching into his front pants pocket and taking out his scroll. Once the older man glanced at the holographic screen he looked at the blond with a hint of amusement in his red eyes as he said, "Well then, you actually made it with seconds to spare. Not bad, kid. Could've been better, but I'm not one to complain."

"It would've been if you gave better directions, ya geezer," Naruto uttered with disdain and narrowed eyes.

Qrow didn't seem outwardly affected by his words which only annoyed Naruto more. While putting away his scroll Qrow said, "If you wanna be a huntsman then you have to be resourceful and prepared to make do with whatever information you get your hands on. Anyway, step inside and make yourself comfortable. You might be here for a while."

Without waiting for a response Qrow turned and walked back into the family home. Naruto, having a face clearly showing he wanted to start rattling off questions, resigned to falling into the older man's steps as he closed the door behind him.

"Take a seat on the couch. I'll be back in a little bit. Oh," Qrow reached into his back pocket before tossing a small towel at Naruto that was caught easily, "and clean yourself up. Figured running a marathon would've worked up a sweat." The huntsman then made his way through the closest doorway which led to the kitchen. Naruto followed him and saw that he was heading towards another door that led to what he guessed was the porch outside.

"Seriously, you're just leaving me here after all that?" Naruto asked irritably.

With a squeak the door was opened halfway as Qrow glanced back at the blond. "Patience, brat. If you put in the effort to get this far then I'm sure you can take a second to relax. We'll talk real soon," he replied smoothly before closing the door as he made his exit.

Naruto stood in place for a moment until he rolled his eyes with a small huff of annoyance and made his way to the living room couch. He plopped onto the dark green piece of furniture and set down his sheathed blade and backpack at his feet. Once a few seconds of silence passed he was already getting tired of it. He normally could appreciate some relaxation but with his objective and hardly contained curiosity heavily lingering in the back of his mind he was getting jittery.

With nothing else to do he simply took in what the room contained such as a couple of wooden bookshelves, cupboards, end tables with lamps resting on top, and the fireplace. A few photographs of varying landscapes lined the walls, giving off a good hint that the resident or residents of the cabin home traveled a good deal. Naruto figured everything else interesting about the home continued up the staircase at the end of the room but he obviously wouldn't pry lest he feel he was sticking his nose where it shouldn't.

The only other things left to take notice of were the coffee table right in front of him and the TV stand not that much farther which held a standard holographic projector found in most family homes. Figuring there was not much else to do he might as well watch the news or something while he waited.

Sadly, it wasn't to be since he couldn't find the remote anywhere nearby. He checked around the projector itself, all of the shelves and other wooden furniture, and even underneath the couch and its removable cushions.

Not willing to put up with the short search much longer Naruto simply gave up and let himself drop back onto the middle of the couch. His souring mood made itself prominent on his whiskered face as he sunk low to the point where his head was no longer higher than the backrest and his chin forcibly rested on the upper part of his chest from the awkward angle. He didn't care, though. He was simply content to remain in this position until Qrow made his return.

However, whatever approaching thoughts about the huntsman were quickly halted when the blond felt a weight suddenly place itself on his head. The young man was alarmed for a moment but didn't let it show. Instead, all he did after a couple of seconds was slowly raise his curious blue eyes upward.

What he saw wasn't something he expected on this trip. Looking down at him with a remote held in what looked like a smiling mouth was a black and white-furred face. With the familiar rhythmic breathing, snout, and elongated ears, there was no doubt about what was happening.

There was a corgi on his head.

The canine barked a hello, dropping the remote onto his chest.

Awesome.

* * *

"Yeah, the kid made it," Qrow stated into his scroll held at his ear.

"Without taking a boat?" replied a male voice on the other end of the cellular device.

"Yeah. Figured he could use some of that tree sticking stuff on water so I guess I was right. Didn't really expect him to actually make it on time, though." Qrow took a second to step away from the tree he was leaning on out of sight from the cabin home. He gave a passing glance to some birds flying overhead as he said, "Kid's fast, I'll give him that. What's weird is that he had more than enough energy to spare from what I saw when he got here. Blondie has more juice in him than Ruby on a sugar rush. It's kinda scary when you think about it."

A satisfied grunt sounded in reply. "Us blondies do tend to amaze when we want to."

The black-haired huntsman rolled his eyes. "Don't get too much of a big head, Tai. We don't need you rubbing off more cockiness on Yang. You know how she can get."

"Eh, I think any effort to tone down even a little bit of that would be wasteful because, like you said, you know how she can get." A slightly accusing female voice murmured in the background. From what Qrow could tell it was most likely his niece in question. "No, we're not talking about you- and you could just put that tongue back where it came from!"

"You and I both know that will only make Yang fight back harder, even with the simple things."

"I know that, but _someone_ needs to mind their business when the adults are talking!" the other male exaggeratingly replied, obviously giving the person named Yang a suggestive hint. "Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady!"

"Anyway, are you guy's almost done in town?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, almost. We just about have everything for dinner. Is whatever you're doing going to be done by then?"

"Don't know. We'll have to see what happens."

"Alright then, but Yang and I might take a little longer than expected. Ruby wanted me to pick up some more baking stuff and the store we usually go to ran out of what she needed."

"Wait, Ruby's not with you two?"

"Nope."

"Then where is she?"

* * *

"So what do you think? Pretty weird, right?"

A bark was the response.

"Yeah, you got a point."

Naruto took that moment to eat another potato chip from the bag the small canine graciously got him from the kitchen. The dog himself, Zwei as he revealed by pointing to the label on his water bowl, was enjoying one of the few dog treats he retrieved for himself. The fact that Zwei was seamlessly able to perform these tasks and showed the intelligence to actually hold a conversation didn't shake Naruto at all. Sometimes you just had to take things as they were and go with the flow.

That's why the two of them were comfortably sitting on the couch and watching a movie that was nearing its end. It was an adaptation of one of the comics Naruto had read a while back and the current scene was showing the last battle on the moon. If Naruto remembered right the fight and setting was inspired by Remnant's own fractured moon and actually ended with the lunar body's round shape breaking to similarly match the real one.

"Still, instant space travel out of nowhere seemed a little much when I first read it."

Zwei gave a softer bark this time.

"Yeah, it's still a cool fight. Music's good too, and I guess the ending does get to me a little even with the weirdness of it all."

Zwei tilted his head and whined a little at the blond.

"Wedding in the credits tugged at your heartstrings too? Well, then you should see-"

"Home!" a feminine voice gloriously shouted as the front door blasted open. Naruto tried to turn his head at the sudden disturbance but whatever it was suddenly bolted right past him, actually creating a breeze that ruffled his hair and clothes along with Zwei's short fur. That wasn't important, though, as his gaze was more focused on the trail of rose petals drifting in the air.

He stared at the crimson objects with confused and blinking eyes while Zwei looked almost entirely unaffected except for the seemingly larger smile and rapidly wagging tail.

It took a moment but Naruto regained his senses and saw that the trail led up the stairs and into the hallway. "What the hell was that?" Naruto muttered to himself. Zwei responded with two quick and happy barks as he sat up straighter.

It was but a mere few seconds later that the blur of rose petals appeared a second time, launching back down the stairs and into the living room. It followed its original path and quickly slammed the front door that was still open before turning heel and going past the duo once again, but this time it went into the kitchen and out of sight.

Being hidden didn't hide the voice that started singing random lyrics with haphazard notes, however.

"Cookie, cookie, cookie…" the feminine voice started, "so yummy, yummy, yummy and stuff! Starts with a 'C', something, something, that's good enough for me!"

The whiskered blond and corgi didn't move from their spots as this went on. Zwei kept his happy demeanor with his tongue slightly hanging out while Naruto was trying to process what just happened with the petals and what was currently occurring on the other side of the wall. That didn't stop the growing smile from forming on his face along with the urge to laugh as the random off key singing went on.

"In mah' jammies all nice and snug like a bug in or on a rug with a jug and gonna chug!" A pouring of some liquid was heard once the sporadic rhyming ended, followed by a closing of what Naruto guessed was the fridge door. After that footsteps started to go towards the living room. "I say again, cookie, cookie, cookie, starts with a- gah!"

And there she was for Naruto to finally observe properly. From bottom to top on her petite form were simple white ankle socks, white pajama pants with pink roses decorating them, and a black tank top with a heart-shaped beowolf design adorning the chest. In her right hand was a tall glass of milk while in her left was a plate of chocolate chip cookies that were piled a little too high, even for someone with a major sweet tooth. Atop her head was shoulder-length black hair with, interestingly enough, a red tint to it. The style and color fit her pretty well in the blond's opinion. However, the most striking features of hers were the currently shockingly wide silver eyes staring right into his blue ones along with the embarrassed red hue that overtook every inch of her previously pale neck and face.

While Naruto was able to go over all this quickly enough, the pajama-clad girl was mentally frozen with her mouth still agape as she took in the stranger. She definitely didn't know who this was, but a quick glance at Zwei was at least enough to tell her he wasn't some dangerous criminal that broke into her house.

The corgi was just good at reading people like that.

Even without the canine's unspoken blessing she was sure she could zip back to her room to get her weapon if the situation required it anyway. Nevertheless, while she wasn't able to currently get her mouth or even body moving she had to admit the male did garner a lot of curiosity from her. Randomly being in her living room aside, she wanted to ask about the whiskers… for research… and also break the ice and uncover why he was here before he broke out laughing since from the twitching smile he had going on he was about to burst any second.

Oh man, how much did he hear? This was _her_ domain! She should be able to be weird whenever she wanted but not with an unfamiliar audience!

In order for her to get the moment going, though, she had to say something.

"Uh… um…" she squeaked out and raised the plate a tad. "W-wanna cookie?"

The nervous and high-pitched voice of the black-haired girl quickly quelled his rising urge to let out his amusement. The sight of her red face slowly lingering downward while her gaze was still locked onto his was just too much to bear and admittedly a little adorable. With her entire being practically screaming for him to say something he cleared his throat and slowly exhaled to calm himself down.

Once he got his composure under control he grabbed the bag at his side and asked, "Wanna chip?"

Letting an awkward smile form on her face she said, "Y-yeah. Sure." She then found movement finally return to her body as she slowly walked to the couch and joined the blond teen and dog. Once she set her goodies onto the coffee table she sat down in silence with growing unease filling her gut. It didn't help that the whiskered male didn't say anything first, but she figured he thought that she would be the one to strike the start of the conversation considering he was the 'guest' of sorts.

 _Social awkwardness, please don't show up now_ , she thought pleadingly.

"Um, so do- I mean- why- um…" She lightly gripped her pants in frustration and forced herself to say the first thing that came to mind to move things along.

"You- you smell like strawberries!"

 _What did I just tell you?!_ she cursed.

And just like before, Ruby's face lit up in a dark red as she could do nothing but stare at the boy's somewhat surprised face at her outburst.

Why did she always have to be weird meeting new people?! She was normally a little shy or something at first, but him randomly showing up and hearing her sing to herself like a buffoon on her traditional junk and jammies day didn't help at all!

"Um…" Naruto sounded slowly, "Well, I had to use someone else's shampoo because I ran out of my own, and it's strawberry, so good nose." He scratched the back of his head and smiled as best he could. The girl was obviously embarrassed and he didn't want to make it worse.

Seeing his friend's plight, Zwei took the initiative and hopped onto her lap, reassuring her with a brief bark and nuzzling her stomach.

The girl quickly relaxed and showed a more genuine smile as the red slowly left her visage. After taking a few seconds to pet the corgi affectionately she turned to the quietly waiting male and held out her right hand, albeit with an anxiousness still surrounding her. "Hi, I'm Ruby Rose."

Naruto smiled back and grasped her hand with a small shake. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki."

A little bit more confidence filled Ruby's mind as she let go of his hand. "Sooo, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Whatcha' doin' in my house if you don't mind me asking?" she asked with a shy chuckle.

The blond hummed. "Y'know, I'm not exactly sure."

She raised a delicate brow. "Huh? How can you not be sure? I mean, you went through the woods and everything to get here, right? You have to have some reason."

A look of minor realization showed on his face before reaching to the backpack sitting next to his leg. "Well, part of the reason was to deliver these." With a quick zip he unveiled the neat pile of untarnished ramen bowls.

 _Damn, I'm good_ , he thought as he placed the bowls on the table.

Ruby and Zwei leaned to get a closer look at the bowls in Naruto's hands. "What's that? Soup or something?" she asked.

"Ramen, actually."

"Uh, you sure you got the right address?"

Naruto's face showed some annoyance as he blankly looked ahead. "Yeah… pretty sure considering who ordered it."

"And who did that exactly?"

"Qrow Branwen… if that's even his real name. I swear, if he made me come to some random house in the middle of nowhere and ditched me I'm gonna-"

Ruby's silver eyes lit up. "Qrow ordered this?"

Naruto looked at her. "So you do know him?"

She nodded resolutely. "Of course, he's my uncle."

"Your uncle?"

She nodded.

"Huh… alright then."

Noticing his tone Ruby asked, "Do _you_ know him?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Hardly. It hasn't even been a full day since I ran into him and he's playing some weird little game with me."

"Uh, what? What kind of game?"

"That's just the thing! I don't know!" He raised his arms up in exasperation. "I mean, yeah, so what if I've been trespassing in different forests to fight Grimm!"

"Wait, wha-"

"But that doesn't mean some random huntsman can just come out of the shadows and mess with my head by being all lazily cryptic or whatever! And now he had me race my ass-"

"Butt!" she interrupted.

Mid-rant, Naruto looked at her questionably.

"No language," she affirmed and crossed her arms, all previous anxiety thrown out the window. " _Butt_ ," she emphasized with a stern whisper.

Lowering his arms and looking at her with the same exasperated look he'd give Ayame when she nagged him he continued. "Fine. He had me race my _butt,"_ she nodded approvingly, "all the way across the water from the middle of the commercial district of Vale with a stupid time limit attached because he was holding money over my head for my family's business."

"Wait, back up," she stated. "What was that about fighting Grimm?"

Calmly, Naruto replied with, "Oh, for the last few years or so I've been sneaking into Forever Fall and Emerald forest to train myself up for the combat tests coming soon. No biggie."

"You want to be a huntsman?" she asked with a smile starting to grow.

"Yep, ever since I was a kid."

"Awesome! I'm going to be a huntress!" she shouted with renewed vigor, somewhat startling Naruto from her change of mood. "If you've been training doesn't that mean you have- you do!" She excitedly pointed at his rested blade.

"Can I see it?" she requested with hardly contained excitement as she leaned towards him.

Naruto blinked. "Uh…"

Ruby pulled back. "Oh, right, the classic 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours'. Be right back!" Before he could respond she handed Zwei to him and formed into a speedy ball of rose petals and launched back up the stairs.

Naruto was quiet until he gave a glance over the many petals still on the ground. "Man, cleaning must be a pain if she does this a lot."

Zwei barked in agreement.

It was but a second later that Ruby came back but in her possession was what looked like a pretty sizable and compact mass of red metal.

Setting Zwei down onto the couch, Naruto stood and unenthusiastically said, "Wooow… it's a… piece of metal. Suppose that would hurt if you wacked something with it."

Rolling her eyes at his quick observation she decided to let her pride and joy do the talking. After a simple adjustment the compressed weapon quickly unveiled its deadly contents. It only took a couple of seconds and a few mechanical adjustments for the weapon to go through looking like a very hefty rifle in one instant and then into a full-blown intimidating curved blade in the next. After the quick transformation Ruby easily weighed the weapon that was seemingly too big for her small frame.

"Meet Crescent Rose!" she proudly announced.

"You have a frickin' scythe?!" Naruto walked closer and observed the more fine details etched into the metal's design. "That's awesome!"

Just like twice before, red colored Ruby's cheeks, but this time it was easier to manage. "Heh, nah," she snorted almost unnoticeably and tried to wave off his flattery, "although she is also a customizable high impact sniper rifle but who's asking?" she finished meekly. Sure, she was doing a little bit of humble-bragging but she always loved showing off her beloved.

Getting back to normal Ruby asked, "So, can I see yours?"

Blinking to snap his mind out of its momentary daze, he then said, "Oh, yeah, right." Turning for a quick moment he retrieved his sheath and presented it to the short girl before taking the blade out of its home. Despite the simplicity of the blade Ruby was eagerly looking at it with an appreciative eye despite the obvious lack of firepower.

After her appraisal she said, "Wow, you've really taken care of this pretty well if you've had it for a few years. What's its name?"

Sheathing the weapon, Naruto replied. "She doesn't have one yet, but that doesn't mean one hasn't been earned. We've been through a lot of fights together and we're gonna have plenty more to last a lifetime, but I want to wait until after I get to a forge for her to really shine."

Ruby's eyes seemed to sparkle. "So you're going to upgrade? Do you know what fighting style you're going for?! What about potential names?! Tell me, tell me!"

Naruto was quickly adjusting to Ruby's changing moods pretty quickly, but he still wasn't quite ready for her to launch into his personal space and start rattling off questions, all while still lovingly holding her giant weapon of death close to her.

Seeing the effect her excitement had due to his slight apprehension, she backed off and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I kinda geek out when it comes to weapons."

The blond chuckled. "I noticed." Ruby smiled sheepishly. "But it's alright. Being cool and composed can be boring."

"Ha, yeah…" Ruby retracted Crescent Rose and looked back up at Naruto. "But still, got any ideas? If you want, I can-"

Alas, the sentence couldn't finish due to the front door once again being opened but it was done much more normally this time. Both teens turned their heads and saw Qrow as he walked in and closed the door behind him. He took a moment to pause and observe the two plus Zwei as the canine poked his head over the backrest before his gaze lingered on the red trails all over the floor.

He brought his crimson eyes to meet Ruby's silver ones that seemed to know what was coming next.

"You know the drill, Ruby."

" _Ugh_!" she groaned out dramatically as she placed her now stored weapon onto the coffee table and dragged her feet to the door under the staircase. Within a few moments she pulled out a broom and a small dustpan. With amusement clearly on his face, Naruto watched as the girl started sweeping up the petals and grumbled all the while.

"You know the drill, _Ruby_..." she mocked in her best impression of her uncle before she paused to look at Qrow as she childishly said, "That's what you sound like…"

"Just keep sweeping, kiddo. Don't want your dad coming home to see that you still haven't completely broken some old habits, do you?" Qrow replied.

"No…" Ruby quietly sounded as she kept up her slow efforts until she saw Naruto's face and aggressively pointed at him. "And _you_ can stop smiling at my misery!"

"But it's funny," the blond retorted with the corgi barking an affirmative. "See?"

"Traitor…" Ruby whispered with narrowed eyes gazing at her dog.

Zwei was undeterred.

While Ruby continued her hasty cleaning Qrow walked up to Naruto and said, "So, how you holding up?"

Naruto faced him calmly and crossed his arms. "Besides being confused and annoyed, just fine. The restaurant is getting the money, right?"

Qrow reacted by taking out his scroll again and tapping the screen a few times before slightly nodding in satisfaction. "There, it's through. Don't have to worry about that."

Naruto nodded back. "Okay then, but I still have questions about the whole meaning of this."

"What, you think I just wasn't in the mood for some noodles coincidentally from the same place you work at?"

Looking at him with blank blue eyes and speaking in monotone, Naruto replied with, "After being all cryptic and trying to chop me half in the forest last night, I kinda doubt that."

Almost done with her sweeping, Ruby paused and leaned on the broom as she looked at the hardened huntsman. "Uncle Qrow, what's Naruto talking about? Why would you want to chop him in half? That's a little mean."

"Already talking so familiarly? I wasn't gone that long. Getting to know my niece, kid?" Qrow questioned the blond, dodging the young woman's inquiry and ignoring her confused look that followed.

Naruto shrugged. "Sorta. All I've really picked up is sugar and weaponry."

Qrow nodded. "Yeah, that about sums her up."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby whined as she finished her small chore.

"Anyway, kid, you got a scroll?" Qrow asked, making Ruby silently huff in the background from being ignored again.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, though it's one of the older models."

Reaching into a different pant pocket than before, Qrow said, "That won't do." It took only a short moment before the huntsman got what he wanted and tossed it to the teen.

A little surprised at first, Naruto caught the small metallic device and easily saw it was a scroll, and the latest model at that. The sleek shine and perfected hardware really showed off the genius of the minds that came together to create such an advanced form of communication, and Naruto was definitely impressed with what it was capable of from what he remembered reading about it.

One of the striking functions was that its video game capabilities were way better than even a year before, and he was ready to get at it when he had the shot. He wasn't expecting to get his hands on it so soon if he was right about what Qrow just did.

Seeing Naruto's confused look Qrow said, "It's standard to give those out to students at Signal where I teach. Not saying you're a student but we usually have a few extra that shouldn't go to waste."

Filing away the information of the man being a combat school teacher, Naruto looked at him a little more seriously. "Why are you doing this?" The question was simple and asked with a little more suspicion than anything, which was understandable to both of the males and even Ruby if her facial expression was anything to go by.

Qrow put his hands in his pockets and shrugged carelessly. "This world is already full of idiots that don't know what they're doing, or maybe they do but they don't put that knowledge to good use. I'd rather not have a stupid kid running around with a deadly weapon with no proper training, especially if that kid is so dead set on protecting the kingdom me and my family happen to live in. I don't need you screwing something up for all of us further down the road, that is if you don't end up getting killed first. That's not exactly something I want on my conscience knowing I could've done something about it."

Naruto looked even more annoyingly confused while Ruby seemed to perk up with a smile behind him.

"What. In the hell. Are you talking about?" Naruto blankly asked.

Before the man could answer Ruby joined back into the conversation. "He wants to train you!" she excitedly exclaimed.

Naruto glanced at her with a raised brow in surprise and turned back to Qrow. "Why would you want to do that? And don't say that stuff of me being stupid because that's definitely not the reason!" he ended quickly as he practically saw the man's face preparing to sneak in some less than flattering words.

Having his small amount of fun stopped, Qrow's expression became a bit more business-like. "This'll probably only aggravate you more but you don't need to know everything right now, especially if you haven't agreed to be taught anything. I'm not dragging you to school or something like that, so don't get your notebooks and pencils ready because it's well past too late for that. Still, if you want I can make sure you're more than prepared to pass those entry tests, but that's all up to you."

In the back of his mind he considered some sort of training as a weird possibility but that didn't mean he was able to take this all in smoothly. "Seriously, you actually want to work with me?"

"Look, I know the situation's pretty weird and all but this is the real deal and it isn't exactly something that comes about often. From experience I've seen a lot of kids that seemed like they were going to go far but ended up losing their drive for whatever reason or simply didn't make the cut. Sure, there are just as many, if not more that make it into the academies and even into the big leagues once they graduate, but despite that there are still plenty that get themselves injured enough to retire or even outright killed because they didn't follow everything they've been taught."

The two teens and canine were silent at his words. They were expressed with complete sincerity despite his rough tone of voice and practically demanded that they take it all in. They had to do it relatively quick, though, since he only took a short pause before he continued.

"I'm going to be blunt, kid. You're good, but you can be much better with the right attention. I'm sure if you keep doing what you've been doing out there in the forests you'll still pass the tests and make it into an academy, but doing everything yourself will only take you so far. Having someone guide or grow stronger right beside you is incredibly important and any experienced huntsman or huntress can attest to that."

"And you're going to be that guide or whatever?" Naruto started skeptically, "Just out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Like I said, you don't need to know everything. The only hint I can really give is that you have eyes on you, and they've been watching closely enough to know you're not some run-of-the-mill trainee."

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked.

"What I mean is even though you've shown that you're capable of life-threatening stupidity, you have a lot of guts and the passion a lot of people, even with all the tools given to them, don't usually bother to have. So congratulations, all those times you nearly got yourself wiped off the planet for good, whether that be from the Grimm or you just being you with that aura of yours, has paid off. Just keep in mind that's only because the right people saw."

"So this wasn't all your idea?"

"No, this was brought to my attention not too long ago, so don't think I'm going to be some sort of loving instructor that jumped onto helping you and am slowly going to be some sort of father figure like in those cheesy movies."

"Well, that position's kinda already filled. The mother figure role is open, though." Naruto then opened up his arms as if wanting a hug but had the barest of emotion showing on his face.

Qrow rolled his eyes. "I think I'll pass."

"Drunken uncle twice removed it is then," Naruto replied after letting his arms drop, earning him a pointed look from the huntsman.

"What, so does that mean you accept?"

The blond exhaled heavily to himself. "I mean, yeah, this is pretty random and all, but if it means getting an easier ticket into Beacon then it'd be stupid to not give it shot. Besides, if my body ends up in a ditch somewhere I at least have someone to testify in my place," he ended while pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Ruby, causing her to gain a confused look from the mention of her name while she put the cleaning tools away.

Qrow chuckled slightly. "Trust me, if I wanted you to disappear you would already be long gone."

"You're not exactly making this offer sound any better…" Naruto muttered.

"Don't care. You're already stuck with it whether you like it or not. Now then, since it seems you've accepted I got to make a call. Keep him busy, Ruby. Don't need him getting lax already," Qrow stated as he made his way back out the front door.

Once the entrance clicked back into place Ruby eyed the scroll still in Naruto's hand and saw an opportunity.

"Have you ever played _Kung Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle_?"

* * *

"So he's accepted, I take it?"

"Yeah, he's in. I guess we'll get started whenever we're through talking," Qrow replied into his scroll.

"That's good to hear. I'm sure Glynda will be happy to know she doesn't have to worry about young Naruto sneaking onto academy property anymore."

Qrow smirked. "And what makes you think I'm not going to just send the kid back there to annoy her?"

"Come now. Are you really suggesting that you want to contribute to the ire of our esteemed colleague?"

Qrow could practically feel the smile dawning onto the headmaster's face. "Oz, you're acting like I'm the only one that gets a kick out of messing with her. In fact, I'm sure the kid would like to get in on it if he met her."

"Perhaps, but I suppose we'll have a chance to find out at some point in the future, not that I'm outright condoning it just for the record."

"Sure you're not."

"What is your newest student up to now anyway?"

"He's just hanging out in the house for a little bit with Ruby."

"Ah, so he's met Ms. Rose? How is she?"

"She's fine. The two of them seem to get along well enough which is good. Ruby could always use more friends, even more so since the brat might be here pretty often depending on what we do."

"And how does Taiyang feel about that?"

"Surprisingly better than I thought. Weirdly enough it was when I told him about the kid's training routine that he was all for bringing him around if I felt like it. Seems as long as his daughters aren't involved in something stupid he's less of a worrywart."

Ozpin chuckled. "Maybe his tenacity reminded him of Yang and brought out some of that fatherly concern."

Qrow scoffed. "Take away the whiskers and I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard convincing people that he's Tai's son. By the way, are you sure he doesn't have any faunus in him? I mean, I know you said you were pretty sure those aren't tattoos but birthmarks is stretching it a little."

"You don't need to worry over such frivolous things. You can ask him yourself sometime down the road if your curiosity is that deprived. Tread carefully, though. You never know when something is more personally sensitive than you think. They can be birthmarks or they could've been put there a long time ago, with or without his consent. You know how the world can be, especially in the rural parts of the kingdoms or completely outside their borders."

"Yeah, I know. Pretty sure I can leave the question to Ruby, though."

"I know she isn't the best at social etiquette from what you and Taiyang have mentioned, but I doubt she'll ask out of the blue like that, especially if they have only just met."

"Uh…"

* * *

"Hey, Naruto?" Ruby asked while she kept her focused gaze onto their projected ninja duel. That didn't stop her from expertly tossing a chunk of a cookie into her mouth to be quickly devoured.

"Yeah?" he mumbled back, fingers furiously tapping all over his scroll's screen as he was still getting accustomed to the controls.

"Why do you have those whisker marks?"

"Not sure. I'm not a faunus, though. I've had them forever so I just assume they're birthmarks."

"Huh, 'kay, that's cool- aha! That's six games to two!" she triumphantly shouted as Zwei barked at the match's end.

"That's only because you've been playing longer than me!"

"All I'm hearing are the native cries of the common whiskered loser!"

"You're gonna eat those words!"

"Bring. It. _On_!"

* * *

"Well, I'm certain he's not that much better than her," Qrow continued. "Getting back on track, is there anything else we need to go over?"

"Not at the moment. Anything important that's on standby is still as such. The only new developments on our end have been the usual annual preparations of the school's curriculum."

"Ugh, I've had enough of that over at Signal, and I'm not even there that often."

"You'll still gladly take the pay, I'm sure."

"Can't argue with that." Qrow turned and headed back to the cabin house. "If that's it then I'll let you go. If anything worth mentioning happens I'll contact you."

"Be certain that you do. I feel that Naruto is going to provide plenty of interesting tales under your tutelage."

"If I have a completely free reign then I can make sure he will. That is, if he doesn't disappoint."

"That's for you to find out then, isn't it? Goodbye, Qrow."

"Later, Oz." With a quick tap the connection was cut and the huntsman kept up his modest pace on the natural path in the forestry. Not much longer he reentered the home and was immediately met with the hollers of the two teens.

"Did we seriously blow each other's arms off?!" Naruto shouted in a small amount of excited disbelief as he watched the latest round end on the screen.

"Yeah!" Ruby responded with equal enthusiasm. "We both activated our finishing moves at the same time and took each other out! Isn't that awesome?!"

"Having fun?" Qrow interjected, causing both of the young adults plus corgi to turn and look at him.

"Yeah, but your niece is a cheater," Naruto blankly accused.

Ruby instantly came to her own defense. "Am not!" she exclaimed.

"You blinded me with cookie crumbs in the middle of a round!"

Ruby's cheeks gained a slight red tint to them. "It was an accident! I got excited and shouted when I was still chewing!"

"We could've paused it then! You still kept beating the crap out of me!"

"That goes against ninja code! Do you want to bring dishonor to your virtual ninja clan?!"

"Alright, settle down, children," Qrow halfheartedly admonished while he walked up next to the couch. Focusing his gaze more at Naruto he said, "Well, since I'm technically going to be teaching you, you might have to come to Patch pretty often."

Setting down his scroll, Naruto replied with, "And why's that? Can't we just go to the forests like I've been doing?"

"Kid, you're not supposed to be doing that anyway, especially not near the academy. If anyone outside the little circle of people that have been watching you finds out, it could make Beacon look bad, and politics and public relations can be a pain. Not saying we're not going to do that again at some point, but it has to be executed better. Secondly, we have a lot more freedom out here, not to mention Signal is closer and I'd rather not take a trip every time I need to work with you."

"So you're going to make me travel instead? Because you're lazy?" Naruto replied with a little disdain.

Qrow held up a finger. "As a matter of fact, no. You got a good workout getting here, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, there you go. That'll be your stamina and control training. When you're actually here it'll mostly be about the combat itself." Qrow's face gave an expression of some quick thinking. "And change of plans. I think it would be best if you stayed the night."

"And why do you think that?" Naruto replied.

"Just feel we need to make the most of the time we have, and I'd rather we get started today and then continue bright and early tomorrow."

Resting and leaning on her arms on top of the couch's backrest, Ruby spoke. "What are you planning to do?"

"I want to get a feel of blondie's skills personally."

Naruto raised a brow. "So what? We going to fight?"

"Pretty much," Qrow retorted while beckoning the teen to follow him outside. "Grab your weapon. Ruby, I'm guessing you want to watch so get dressed."

"But… junk and jammies day…" she weakly whined back, ignoring Naruto's curious stare.

Qrow stopped walking and looked at her. "You can get back to it later and Yang will probably be here to join. Besides, I'm gonna need you for something."

Ruby sighed. "Fine." She then got off the couch and walked up the stairs to get to her room.

"C'mon, we're already wasting time," Qrow said and continued his walk to the door.

Naruto got a grip of his blade and followed the man's trail. "Uh, junk and jammies day? Yang?" the blond asked once they left the house.

"Just something Ruby made up when she was little to give her some excuse to have fun and overdose on sugar every Saturday if nothing else is going on. Yang is her older sister by two years and is your age. I think you two will get along when she and their father get here."

"And who's the father?"

"Taiyang Xiao Long, a huntsman and teacher at Signal like me."

"Does he know about this?"

"Yeah, and he was going to tell Ruby if she hadn't split off from them so quickly to come back here. I'm sure Yang has been told by now, though."

"Okay, ready! Wait for us!" Ruby shouted from behind them as she jogged up with Zwei following in tow.

When he glanced over, Naruto saw that the girl's new outfit fit the same color scheme of mostly black and red. On her feet were black calf-high boots that blended in with the dark leggings that were visible to just above her knees. Her thighs and waist were covered by a black skirt with red trimming along with a belt that seemed to hold cartridges and had a silver rose emblem attached near her right hip. Around her midsection was a black cincher with red lacing that matched the long-sleeved black blouse she wore, along with a compacted Crescent Rose hanging on her lower back. Lastly, the most eye-catching part of her attire was the wavy red hood that hugged her shoulders and back that was attached to her shirt by use of two cross-shaped pins.

"Sweet hood," Naruto commented with a small thumbs up.

Once Ruby caught up and matched their pace she gave a cheesy smile and a thumbs up of her own. "Sweet hoodie."

"If you're both done ogling each other we can get down to business," Qrow said while they stopped in a sizable clearing on the property.

"I can't wait to hit you..." Naruto muttered as he stared at Qrow with annoyance while missing Ruby's embarrassed expression. That didn't mean she didn't sneak in some irritation at her uncle's minor teasing. She may be used to it from him and Yang, but being around someone she just met wasn't making anything better.

"Uh-huh. Well, since we're here I want to talk about one more thing before we get started. And this is partly where you come in, Ruby."

"Huh?" she sounded.

Qrow looked at Naruto. "Alright, if I'm remembering this correctly from last night, when you were talking to your sword you mentioned something about getting to a forge. That means you want to give your weapon some more oomph, right?"

After hearing that Naruto talked to his blade, Ruby unnoticeably whispered, "I'm not the only one..."

"Uh, yeah?" Naruto replied.

"Well, since we're a little short on preparation time and today has been pretty charitable already, why don't we go ahead and arrange for you to use Signal's forge to get you a new toy?" Qrow offered with a shrug.

Naruto blinked. "I am honestly starting to think whatever I'm getting involved with is either really illegal or just the start of something that's gonna royally _suck_ at some point in the future," he said vacantly.

"Because trespassing onto academy grounds full of monsters and surrounded by the kingdom's trained warriors is perfectly legal," Qrow calmly retorted.

The blond shrugged. "Touché, old man."

While Qrow developed a slight frown Ruby asked, "Naruto, why were you doing that for as long as you have?"

"Because I'm stupid," Naruto replied without an ounce of shame.

"Oh, okay."

Naruto turned back to Qrow. "Still, all these offers are really sounding too good to be true. I'm kinda half-expecting Ruby to attack from behind in some sort of master plan to capture or kill me."

Ruby blinked innocently while Qrow said, "Well, don't bother me too much about it. You'll have someone else to annoy when all is said and done. Now, I'm positive we can get started on improving your blade tomorrow but let's get back to involving little Ruby here. I suggest you let her help you in the whole forging process."

Naruto curiously looked at the short girl next to him. "Weren't you about to say something about helping earlier?"

Looking somewhat abashed Ruby replied with, "Well, yeah. If you want we can go over ideas and stuff… I don't know…"

"I'm guessing she already showed you her scythe?" Qrow asked and got a nod from Naruto. "Of course she did. Well, the reason why I'm recommending her help is because she designed and made every little bit of her weapon. She only needed help with some manufacturing and training to properly use it. Trust me, she's a natural and can find a good fit for you."

Glancing back to Ruby, Naruto saw that she was shyly taking her uncle's praise in stride.

"If she can then I don't see why not. I didn't exactly have much of a plan besides spending what I've saved up on whatever I could find that felt right," the blond said after a moment of thought.

Ruby perked up at his words. "This is going to be great!" she exclaimed with fresh enthusiasm. "We're going to make you the absolute best instrument of death Remnant has ever seen!" She paused. "Well, maybe second to Crescent Rose… and maybe a few others but that really depends on the ones wielding them… Still, I won't let you down!" she finished with a salute.

Feeling her smile a little infectious, Naruto showed a small one of his own and lifted a closed fist. "Looking forward to working with you then."

Catching on with the gesture Ruby raised her own smaller fist and bumped Naruto's.

"Since we got that out of the way let's finally get this thing officially started," Qrow said.

Naruto started turning his head to face the huntsman as he said, "So what are we-"

Unfortunately for the blond his sentence couldn't go on due to being rudely interrupted by Qrow's fist slamming into his whiskered cheek along with the side of his nose.

Naruto quickly staggered into the direction the punch was thrown while holding a hand tightly over the now throbbing area. Thankfully only feeling pain and not blood leaking thanks to his aura, Naruto turned a very hostile gaze towards the older male.

"What the fuc-"

The other member of this family apparently felt she needed to interrupt him mid-sentence as well. Rushing to a spot in front of him, Ruby poked Naruto in the chest and managed to somehow look concerned and strict at the same time. "Fudge," she simply stated.

Naruto looked at her incredulously. "Are you serious right now?! He fuc-"

" _Fudge_!" she repeated with another stern whisper like before.

The male teen continued to stare at her with exasperation before he took a couple of deep breaths and slowly gazed at Qrow who was calmly waiting for a response.

"Okay…" Naruto quietly started with Ruby proudly patting his shoulder a couple of times and checking to see if her uncle did any lasting damage, "What the fudge was that for?! A fudging warning would've been nice, you motherfudger! For fudge's sake, who the fudge starts off with that!? _Fudge_!"

After being surprised at his sudden outburst, Ruby did nothing but stare with shocked eyes as she slowly raised her hand to cover her mouth at the veiled vulgarity.

Not showing any major reaction Qrow responded with, "Just wanted to try some hand-to-hand first. It's important to not completely rely on your weapon or semblance. You never know when your base skills will have to come in and save your life. That's something for you to remember too, Ruby."

Being called old multiple times by Naruto might've also inspired the little surprise, but he wasn't going to voice it. The hit was plenty satisfying enough and he was able to already dish out a quick life lesson, though Ruby was still frozen where she stood so he wasn't sure his words traveled to her brain yet.

While this was going on, two new arrivals stood at the edge of the clearing and got there just in time to witness the attack and hear the subsequent vengeful words that were shouted. They had just dropped off the groceries they bought at their cabin house and easily tracked down the trio to the usual area where their spars occurred.

"Dad, why did Qrow punch that guy?" a feminine voice asked perplexingly.

A man sighed and rubbed his brow. "Qrow is just being Qrow. We can ask when all is said and done, Yang. For now we'll just have to watch. It seems that the official teaching has begun."

"So that's Naruto, huh?" Yang muttered as she saw him readily square up to fight her uncle with a whiskered glare. "Looks like this is going to be fun."

"Why is Ruby just standing there?" the man asked as he watched his daughter barely move a muscle.

Yang focused on her little sister before shrugging. "Guess her whole censorship system was violated from what we heard." A foolish smirk grew on her face. "If she wants to get out of the way her brain better put the _petal_ to the metal."

With a side-glance Yang saw her father softly palm his face with an almost inaudible groan.

"Y'know, 'cause of her rose petals. Get it?" she continued with the same satisfied vigor.

"…"

"Okay, that wasn't my best one…"

* * *

(Omake – Alternative First Meeting – Review-inspired)

Zwei tilted his head and whined a little at the blond.

"Wedding in the credits tugged at your heartstrings too? Well, then you should see-"

Before Naruto could continue the front door behind him shot open viciously. Obviously he was about to face whatever disturbance made itself known but he had no such chance. Faster than he was expecting the hair on the back of his head was snared in two tight grips and pulled back, causing his neck to bend over the backrest and force him to stare wide-eyed at the ceiling.

Straight after came the feeling of something pressing against his head and the sound of someone deeply inhaling. This caused a multitude of disturbing shivers to shoot throughout his entire being as he remained frozen from the shock.

Immediately following the inhale was the intoxicated whisper that said, "Strawberries…"

He screamed.

* * *

 **AN: I have a pretty good feeling I'm going to have a hell of a great time writing Ruby and everyone else when they come along. Oh, and for those that might think Ruby might've been a tad bit more socially awkward than normal, I just want to say that it's due to Naruto kinda butting in during a vulnerable and embarrassing moment. We've all been really weird when we're by ourselves at some point, so this was one of Ruby's. She should be more comfortable from here on out... maybe... I don't know.**

 **Also, as for the omake, it was inspired by a couple of reviews mentioning the whole strawberry thing which I totally didn't get at first. A quick google search revealed I accidentally involved Ruby's favorite food so I just rolled with it and even included a lighter version in the main story. Still, I had a good laugh with** **Fan-Of-FictionX01 (who beta'd again to make sure the crappy mistakes were at a minimum so kudos to him) over this more psychotic scenario, so thanks to the reviewers that got the gears rolling in our brains.**

 **Anyway, thank you to all those that took the time to read this chapter, especially those that decided to give this little thing a nice follow or review from the get-go. Wasn't sure how this would be received but so far it's been practically all positive. I hope I can live up to whatever expectations some of you may have of me.**

 **Whether you liked or disliked this chapter I want plenty of you guys to express your thoughts in a review. Criticism is of course welcomed and it's always a pleasure to read the reactions I get out of you all. Also, you never know when whatever you blabber can inspire new additions to future chapters like the omake above, so please don't hesitate to write anything from a simple sentence to a fully detailed essay :)**

 **Hope to have you all back for the next chapter!**

 **Later!**


	3. Ramen or Bust

**AN: UGGGGGHHHH... Yeah, I hate me too. Read on.**

 **Disclaimer: I Don't own Naruto or RWBY**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Ramen or Bust**

What was previously a peaceful clearing among Patch's wilderness was now a temporary battleground for two combatants as various thuds and grunts sounded out for all to hear among other things.

"You got the power, kid, but your technique isn't all that great," Qrow commented as he blocked yet another punch from the rapidly moving Naruto.

The whiskered blond let out another quick breath of air through his clenched teeth as he shot his fist forward to only meet air. After missing the evasive huntsman Naruto frustratingly replied with, "Well, what the hell did you expect?!" He quickly punched with his left only to reveal it as a feint before he tried to kick the man's side with his right leg. Sadly, the move couldn't quite strike home as Qrow caught the appendage and parried the teen away.

After switching positions due to the man's counter Naruto sloppily found his footing and continued a bit more calmly than he was mid-punch. "Was I supposed to be some master brawler just from messing with Grimm? If you hadn't noticed, they're easier to punch in the face when they've been sliced up beforehand and because they're so predictable after a while!"

Qrow calmly stood in place but was prepared to handle whatever the younger male decided to throw at him. "They're only predictable because you've fought the same species of Grimm a bunch of times over the years. Trust me, if you get far enough you're going to face monsters that make beating up boarbatusks and beowolves seem like a walk through a meadow of flowers. That's why you gotta at least be adequate enough to survive."

Deciding to go on the offensive for a bit Qrow went forward and struck his own punch. Thankfully for Naruto's sake, the blond managed to swerve out of the way and even successfully blocked another.

After going through his small combo Qrow backed off a few steps and said, "At least your defense seems pretty decent."

Still having his fists raised to protect himself, Naruto replied. "Well, you tend to pick up how to not get the crap knocked out of you when you know damaging your clothes will only majorly piss off the person stuck with fixing them."

Qrow cracked a small smirk. "Dad? Sister?" he asked.

"Pretty much my big sister," Naruto replied with a small smile until his face took on a minor look of trepidation. "It was a lot scarier when I couldn't fight and she was still bigger than me… still scary now depending on how bad it is."

"Yeah, been there, kid," Qrow responded after thinking back to a distant memory or two. "Well, let's see how good you are at not becoming a smear on the ground." After his words, Qrow launched forward with more aggression that had Naruto's adrenaline running instantly.

While the spar went on Ruby finally got her presence of mind together and walked to join her father and sister at a comfortable viewing distance.

They both looked the same as before, not that that was very surprising considering she had last seen them only a few hours ago.

Her older sister, Yang, decided to sport a ponytail today to control her usually long flowing blonde hair. Even with the yellow locks securely held in place by an elastic band, it gave off an impression that they could be unleashed at a moment's notice. Bright lilac eyes noticed her appearance at their side, causing her to give a little wave and smile to accent her similarly pale complexion until they interestingly went back to the fight between their uncle and Naruto. Covering her torso was an orange tank top that covered her admittedly mature form and exposed her midriff, while over that was an open gray long-sleeved jacket that bore a symbol resembling two parallel halves of a yellow heart on the left sleeve. Adorning her bottom half was gray-brown cargo pants that were barely low enough to expose the edge of her dark undergarments. Stitched onto the pants was a burning yellow heart similar to the other on the jacket above her right knee, and a patch in the shape of a shield with three ursa masks inside. The last notable piece of her attire was simple white sneakers that gave her comfortable mobility.

Watching the spar with a more calculative eye was her father, Taiyang Xiao Long. As per usual he had on his black shoes, brown cargo pants and belt, a brown vest over his tan short-sleeved dress shirt that lacked the right sleeve, a red bandana wrapped around his left arm, and a brown fingerless glove, vambrace and metal spaulder on his right arm. More captivatingly was the tattoo on his exposed right bicep that was the same emblem on the sleeve of Yang's jacket, hinting that the jacket used to belong to him. A stubble covered his jawline along with a small soul patch below his bottom lip that was slowly turning into a grin as the fight went on. A breeze slightly ruffled his short and shaggy pale blond hair, bringing some attention to the intrigued blue eyes he bore.

"Up to speed, Ruby?" Taiyang asked as his youngest daughter took a position between him and Yang.

Ruby sheepishly smiled. "Yeah, I am now." Her face then showed a little bit of an annoyed pout. "A bit more effort to warn me would've been appreciated! I wasn't exactly ready for this surprise!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "We did put more effort. Check your scroll."

Ruby blinked in response before she pulled out her device. After tapping the screen she read aloud the notification that she somehow managed to miss throughout her trip back home and her little gaming session with Naruto.

"Hey, Ruby, don't freak out when you get home. Qrow invited someone named Naruto- _oooh_ , okay… oops." She guiltily chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.

Her father smiled. "So how did the surprise go?" He felt he already knew the answer.

"Uh…" Ruby sounded, practically giving away how their initial first encounter went. "Well… not the greatest at first, at least for me…" She perked up a tad, however. "He does seem nice, though."

"Aw, Ruby made a new friend!" Yang was quick to approach and wrap her little sister into an overly affectionate hug that lifted her short stature up from the ground. "I'm so pwoud of you, Wuby!" she finished with a mocking baby voice.

Arms forcibly held at her sides, Ruby could do nothing but try to kick the blonde away. Sadly, it seemed to be failing after a few tries. "Yang, quit it!"

"I can't help it! Seeing you make new possible buddies is always fun to watch!" The excited blonde finally set Ruby down after a few more shakes. "So, what did you guys do?" she eagerly asked, now ignoring the spar for the time being. Her sister's seemingly increasing social life was obviously much more important.

After straightening out her blouse and skirt Ruby pointedly stared at her sister. "Nothing. We just played some video games before coming out here when you showed up." Her face switched moods as she remembered something else. "Oh! And uncle Qrow suggested that I help upgrade Naruto's sword and he said yes! Crescent Rose is getting a sister!"

Yang gasped over dramatically. "You're making a weapon together?"

Ruby nodded excitedly, happy at the prospect of bringing another beautiful utensil of death into the world.

The blonde female whistled in an impressed manner. "Wow, that was quick. Might as well have him move in while you're at it."

"Huh?" Ruby curiously replied.

Taiyang was silent, yet he did keep a smile of amusement showing as his children went back and forth. Yang's spirited personality clashing with Ruby's more innocent one was always a good show.

"Ha! Finally got you, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled triumphantly, making both sisters join back with their father in observing the bout.

It didn't seem as if much had happened, considering this was more of a test fight than anything. They did, however, notice that the whiskered male's clothes were a bit more disheveled and even dirty from the grass and dirt. There was even a silver locket now loosely wobbling outside of Naruto's shirt that was tucked in before and out of sight. The blond had a satisfied look upon his face while Qrow only looked a little annoyed as he rubbed his right shoulder.

"Yeah, congratulations," Qrow said with a hint of a sarcastic tone. "You got a lucky one in after being hit ten times as much. You should be proud." The man settled into a relaxed pose as he let his aura prevent a bruise from forming after the hit. Even if the teen was only able to get a single successful shot it was pretty damn hard.

"It doesn't matter as long as it works!" Naruto cheekily replied. "I just gotta wear you down and I'm not even tired! I can keep on going all day!"

Qrow rolled his eyes. "I really hope you're not stupid enough to think that's a complete win. In real life I doubt you'll be successful by lasting against an opponent and taking a beating for a long time while people, both civilian and huntsmen alike, are dying around you. Obviously you can afford a longer fight in some cases, but a majority has to be as swift and clean as possible."

Naruto sighed. "Noted. Still, that's not the case right now." Naruto got back in his usual fighting stance with fists raised. "Are we still doing this or what?"

The older man in his neutral posture thought to himself for a bit until he said, "Yeah, might as well. Weapons free this time."

Not needing to be told twice Naruto quickly unsheathed his blade and shot forward. In a reverse role from the prior night, Qrow was the one to immediately raise his retracted weapon for the block. It was easily successful and he didn't buckle at all once the loud clang rang out. There was notably a good amount of power from the overhead strike but it wasn't anything he wasn't already used to.

Instead of going for another slash like Qrow expected of the teenager, Naruto followed his attack by raising a foot towards the man's torso. There wasn't a lot of force behind the movement so the black-haired male guessed he was simply going to use his body as a way to quickly propel himself backward and follow through with some sort of combo.

Might as well humor him and let him try whatever he wanted. He couldn't completely obliterate the huntsman-in-training right off the bat after all.

However, instead of Naruto simply pushing off of Qrow's body the older man was barely able to see the young man's foot suddenly become encased in an orange glow. The instant he saw the aura-covered appendage make contact with his stomach he suddenly found himself flying backward while an explosion of energy made his ears ring.

The seasoned huntsman first made contact on the ground with his back a pretty sizable distance away from his original spot before he continued on a little further, looking a bit like a stone skipping along the surface of water. Getting over his initial surprise Qrow righted himself and stopped his momentum by stabbing his weapon into the ground, creating a sizable gash into the soil. Halting almost immediately the man deeply sighed to himself as he slowly stood back up from his kneeling position and sent an annoyed glare at the blond. "You just couldn't wait to use that, could you?" he asked as he began patting some dirt off of his sleeve. He honestly expected some small swordplay first before the teen decided to showcase some of his abilities.

Naruto, on the other hand, had the most shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Relaxing his pose and crossing his arms smugly he spoke with no small amount of pride. "Do you know how long I've wanted to do that to something besides a stupid beowolf?! There was no way in hell I was gonna wait till later to use that on you, especially after that damn cheap shot!"

"That was awesome! Is that your semblance, Naruto?!" Ruby enthusiastically shouted from the sidelines.

Naruto, with a cocky grin still showing, turned to glance at the young woman. He first took notice of the new arrivals watching on, seeing that the man took a moment to nod as a greeting while the blonde girl uncrossed her arms to give a short yet cheerful wave.

After responding in kind with a nod and wave of his own, he responded. "Part of it! This is just something I've been practicing a lot with lately! I could've put in more juice to launch him further but I wanted to see his reaction! His face was enough to satisfy me for today, maybe the whole week!"

"You're slipping, Qrow!" Yang teasingly shouted with her hands cupped around her mouth. "Maybe this is a sign that you should retire soon!"

Naruto smiled at Yang's words and turned to the waiting Branwen. "She's got a point, old man! It might be time to start looking into an old folk's home-"

Before Naruto could finish he, like Qrow before, found himself hurtling backward at a fast rate. Whereas Qrow was forced back by Naruto's explosive ability, the blond himself only had a moment to register a distortion in the air racing towards him before the inevitable collision. He had a noticeably longer hang time flying through the air than the older male and clumsily rolled along the dirt before roughly slamming back first into a tree. After sliding down into a sitting position the blond leaned his head back against the damaged bark and groaned.

"I'm not old," Qrow muttered calmly to himself after seeing the obvious success of the sonic wave he sent from an almost imperceptible slash of his blade.

"Naruto!" Ruby shouted before using her semblance to speedily appear at his side across the field, leaving a trail of petals all the while.

With only a raised brow after seeing the attack, Taiyang said, "Wasn't this supposed to be a test fight, Qrow?"

"Yeah, you didn't even try doing that to me or Ruby until months into when we first started training," Yang chimed in as she saw her sister repeatedly poke Naruto's whiskered cheek.

Not concerned in the slightest, Qrow propped his elbow on his weapon's handle and relaxed. "Trust me, he's way more durable than this. He's only stunned a bit because he wasn't expecting it. Next time he'll probably get right back up and keep going until he can't move. He's annoying like that." He noticed that Ruby took her own initiative and unwrapped a single packaged cookie from her pocket and started waving it in front of the blond's face.

Intrigued, Yang asked, "And how do you know that?" She hadn't exactly been told why Qrow was bringing Naruto over to be taught, just that he was.

"Qrow and some others have been secretly watching him fight Grimm for a while," the elder Xiao Long answered. "Haven't really seen anything myself but apparently Naruto's more of a stubborn and sporadic fighter that can take a beating and keep going."

Yang smirked smugly. "Those types are always fun." That sounded pretty similar to herself, especially with the involvement of her semblance.

"Which is what we need to fix," Qrow cut in. "If he can fight more effectively and take fewer hits he can be a monster given time. You were the same way, Yang, but you've obviously added a lot more consistency into your style since the start."

After smelling the sugary treat in front of him Naruto was able to gather his bearings as he whispered, "I'm already getting tired of this guy…" The blond sniffed again and opened his squinted eyes. "Peanut butter?" he curiously uttered.

"Yep," Ruby replied as she dropped the cookie into his only free hand. "You earned that one."

Sitting up straighter Naruto asked, "Do you always carry these with you?"

Ruby honestly looked a bit perplexed. "You don't?"

Naruto was about to comment on the apparent weird behavior but he reigned himself when he remembered that he used to always carry instant ramen cups in his backpack… he still kinda did sometimes when sneaking off to train if he was being honest. Deciding to ignore her curiosity he stood back up with a bit more pep in his step before popping his neck and back in preparation.

After taking an overly aggressive bite out of the gifted cookie Naruto yelled, "Okay, now I have to get you back again, dattebayo!"

Qrow tilted his head in thought for a moment as he continued to lean on his sword. "Nah, I think we're good for now," he answered plainly.

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed in anger. "You can't seriously end it like that!"

"Well, I just did. Now come on. We're heading back and will go over some stuff after dinner."

Heavily sighing in resignation Naruto sheathed his sword and started making his way to the rest of the gathering group with Ruby by his side. "Whatever, but that dinner better be the ramen you made me bring."

Qrow curiously gazed at the young male behind as they walked. "I'm sure you have it all the time considering where you live, so why not skip it this once?"

" _Because_ ," Naruto started sternly, "those bowls were a pain for my family to make so unexpectedly and I had to run nonstop for an hour to get them here. Also, anyone who wastes ramen isn't exactly someone I want to be around…"

Blinking at how serious Naruto suddenly got, Qrow responded. "It's just noodles, kid."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You're the one that paid so damn much for it."

Qrow shrugged carelessly. "That's nothing for a huntsman of my experience."

Seeing that the older man wasn't biting Naruto glanced at the young scythe-wielder beside him and thought of something. "If you let those bowls go to waste then Ruby isn't working on my weapon," he said simply. He wasn't being totally serious but he didn't really expect Ruby to react that much.

He was wrong.

The young woman gasped in horror and stared at his whiskered face with a wide-eyed visage of betrayal. Naruto flinched, not expecting the sharp tug on his morality from the sight. Thankfully, Ruby didn't linger on him for too long as she changed targets, specifically her uncle whose hands were currently holding most of the cards in this decision.

Instantly she stared at Qrow with glimmering eyes that practically screamed her heartfelt desires. Her gaze, quivered lip, and high pitched whine slowly emanating from her closed mouth stopped the man and everyone else in their tracks.

Weirdly enough Qrow's face didn't show any sign of budging and continued to stare at his niece dead in the eyes without remorse. This went on for far too long in everyone's minds until Qrow eventually looked at the blond father.

"What were you guys planning to make?" he asked evenly.

"Uh, stew," he replied after a moment.

"It's ramen now," Qrow said before turning and once again leading everyone back to the home.

"Okay?" Taiyang sounded as he walked with the others, Ruby victoriously smiling next to her sister and Naruto. However, Ruby's face quickly switched to disdain before poking Naruto to get his attention.

Her face, while still holding a dominant sense of her natural innocence, still made Naruto pause. "Don't do that again," she ordered seriously.

Naruto's eyes widened a tad from the intimidation and lingered a bit as Ruby went back to her usual self.

Noticing the male's reaction, Yang with a smirk said, "Yeah, don't get between Ruby and her love of weapons. You'll only get hurt." Ruby nodded to herself.

"Noted…" Naruto replied before his face snapped to attention. "Oh yeah, Naruto by the way." He held a hand over Ruby's head.

"Yang," she introduced pleasantly as she shook his hand above her sister.

"And I'm Taiyang, these girls' father. Nice to have you here," Taiyang greeted politely and held his hand out to Naruto behind him as they kept walking.

"Thanks," Naruto responded as he shook the man's hand in kind.

Ruby perked up. "Oh yeah, Naruto?"

"Yeah?" he responded.

With her head tilted, the black-haired girl asked, "What's a dattebayo?"

Naruto looked a little sheepish at his lifelong verbal tic being brought up. "Well-"

"We'll tell you when you're older," Yang cut in.

"You're not that much older than me at all!"

"Still older," Yang retorted, simply happy to mess with her sister even though she had no idea what the strange word was either.

The group only made small talk for a bit until they reached the house. After getting briefly situated Naruto sat down on the living room couch and decided to call home to let Teuchi and Ayame know of his apparent overnight stay.

"Hey, Ayame," Naruto greeted as he saw the brunette's face pop up onto his new scroll's screen. From the looks of her background she was using their computer upstairs to receive the call.

"Naruto?" her voice rang from the speaker. "Since when did your scroll have video calling? You've never done that before."

"Yeah, long story short, I got the newest scroll as a gift from Qrow over here. I'll explain everything when I get back home tomorrow. I'm just letting you know that I'm going to spend the night so don't worry."

"Alright, but is this going to be a regular thing?" she replied.

Naruto shrugged. "Don't know. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be visiting here a little often but that's about it."

"Okay, I'll let dad know. Don't do anything stupid while you're- um, who's that?" Ayame abruptly asked.

Naruto was confused for a moment until he felt someone leaning over the couch from behind. Poking her head into the shot and over his shoulder, Yang shot a cheerful smile at the female Ichiraku. "Hellooo!" she exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

Ayame blinked. "Hi?" she replied confusedly.

Patting Naruto on the head Yang said, "Don't worry about whiskers here." The eccentric young woman then reached out beyond the frame of the camera and pulled a surprised Ruby into a tight side hug. "My sister and I won't let him get into any trouble."

"Thank you?" the brunette responded as she gazed at the two new faces on the screen. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"Yang Xiao Long and my sister Ruby Rose, whisker's new best friend apparently," Yang said with a shrug at the end.

"Yang!" Ruby whined uncomfortably as her face was squished into her sister's shoulder. Best friend was obviously jumping the gun in her mind. She had only met the blond earlier in the day and, while so far he seemed like an enjoyable enough person to be around, she didn't want any potential friendship with him to be weirdly tainted by Yang making it seem like she was desperate for companionship.

"What?" Yang replied. "I'm only being friendly. That's how you make buddies, Rubes. Take notes."

Taking a second to shrug off the random introduction, the brunette replied with, "Anyway, I'm Ayame Ichiraku. Nice to meet you," she said kindly and glanced at Naruto's single eye on the screen, the male's grip on the scroll having been disturbed by the sisters' sudden closeness. "I guess I'll let you go then. Oh, and check the other pocket in the backpack that didn't hold the ramen. See you tomorrow. Bye!" And with a simple push of a button the woman's face disappeared from Naruto's screen.

Replaying her words into his head, Naruto reached nearby and grabbed the backpack he'd lugged over to the island. Upon zipping open the front and sizable pocket Naruto discovered some tightly packed pajamas, extra clothing and other small essentials needed for sleeping over. The little bit of extra weight must've not been noticed since he was such a hurry.

Naruto stared at the objects in a small amount of awe. "Her foresight honestly scares me sometimes."

With crossed arms, Yang proudly said, "Yeah, big sisters are just awesome like that."

The hooded girl her gave a blank stare. "Uh-huh…" she muttered.

"What was that?" Yang questioned with some natural sibling annoyance building up.

"Naruto, what's that thing?" Ruby asked as she pointed to the pile of unveiled items, completely ignoring her sister.

The item she was referring to was some bundled piece of dark cloth barely peeking from the bottom of the pile. Not recognizing the item at first Naruto grabbed and held it up, instantly identifying it as he did so.

"Why did she pack this old thing?" he said as he saw the now revealed soft hat with stitched in narrowed eyes and goofy teeth hanging over the hem.

"Aw, is that some sort of kiddie sleeping cap?" Yang gushed as she immediately grabbed it from Naruto's grip, not hesitating to look it over closely. With a teasing smile she said, "Does it pwotect you from scawy monsters and bad dweams?" Like before, she was having fun with the baby voice.

Naruto wasn't amused at all and glanced at the girl with an emotionless gaze. "Yes, yes it did, when I was a kid. Ayame made it for me years ago but I haven't worn it in a long time. She probably packed it as a joke or something."

" _Suuure_ , as far as we know," Yang continued to tease. Wordlessly she gained a thoughtful expression before she firmly fastened the cap on Ruby's head, not meeting any resistance at all as they continued on as if the piece of apparel wasn't there.

At that moment Taiyang walked into the doorway from the kitchen. "Since we only need to heat the ramen back up, dinner will be ready real soon. Yang, grab the bread when you guys head over here," he requested as he disappeared back into the room.

The older sister walked to the coffee table and grabbed a plastic bag filled with dinner rolls that they picked up from a bakery.

With utmost seriousness, Yang stared right at Naruto and held the bag up. "Are you bready to roll?" She couldn't stop the victorious smirk that grew at the corner of her mouth.

Ruby pulled the cap down over her eyes as she pressed her face into the couch cushion, sounding out a muffled groan that was easily heard by the other two.

The two brightly-haired teens stared each other down, the female eagerly awaiting a response to her moment of genius.

After an agonizing wait, Naruto turned to the still immobile Ruby and gently poked her.

"Hm?" she let out.

"Do you think your roof is high enough for me to end it all if I dove head first?" Naruto calmly asked, not paying attention to the offended scoff he received from Yang.

A second went by before Ruby gave a weak thumbs up, face still planted into the back rest.

"Alright then," the blond responded as he started making his way to the front door. Right when he was about to grab the handle Taiyang's voice called out.

"We're all ready! Come and get it!"

Withdrawing his hand, Naruto sighed and turned around to walk towards the kitchen with the girls. "Damn it…" he silently cursed.

* * *

Dinner had been a simple affair. While Naruto would've liked the ramen to be much fresher for the noodles and broth to receive its full appreciation, everyone still enjoyed it plentily enough as they conversed. The only somewhat important things to note were a few basic plans of how Qrow was going to work with Naruto from the next day onward.

They would spar for the most part, hoping to build and fine-tune Naruto's overall fighting style. Hand-to-hand would take slight precedence as a start due to the blond not possessing, let alone having started designing, his future partner in crime alongside Ruby. The older huntsman's job was also made easier because the young man did pretty well for himself by building up some solid strength and an obviously above average stamina over the years.

There was also some questions about Naruto's aura and semblance from the two females, but they went unanswered as Naruto decided to teasingly tell them to wait and see. The rest of the night went on by without much fanfare, but since it happened to be Ruby's apparent day of sugar and fun she forced the other teens to sit down and marathon a few movies with her. Admittedly it had been fun until they decided to finally turn in the night some hours later, the sisters going to their shared space while Naruto was given the upstairs guest bedroom with gray decor.

That's where the blond found himself currently, though he wasn't aware of it in the moment since he was blissfully unconscious as he rested. That is, until something gently clamped over his mouth, easily making his eyes shoot open as he let out a mostly muted grunt of surprise. He would've sat up as his senses shot into gear but some gentle resistance kept him at bay.

Blinking the blurriness out his vision he focused on the small hand over his mouth and followed the rest of the appendage it was attached to until he met the silver eyes of Ruby. She was once again in the pajamas she had on when they were first introduced with the addition of his sleeping cap still atop her head.

It was a little strange, yes, but he didn't really care enough to question it.

"Sorry," she whispered as she knelt at his bedside.

Naruto relaxed, causing Ruby to withdraw her hand. "What're you doing here?" he whispered back.

Ruby looked a little embarrassed at the question. "I couldn't sleep. Every time I tried all I could see were a bunch of weapon ideas shooting through my mind."

Naruto yawned. "Um, is that a normal thing?" he asked as he rubbed the corner of his eye.

"A little," she admitted, "but this is about something that will actually become real. The last time I kept myself up like this was when I was still thinking about plans for Crescent Rose."

"Fair enough," Naruto drowsily replied.

"Now then," Ruby started as she elongated her scroll horizontally as the screen became a beacon in the mostly dark room, "I looked up some basic designs for swords like yours. You can pick a few that you like and we can go from there." With rapid taps on the screen rows upon rows of pictures appeared for the duo to go over.

Naruto lazily glanced at the many kinds of blades that were held to his face as he continued to lay down flat on his back, not putting in the effort to sit up yet. The scroll's low brightness made him squint, accenting his whisker marks as he said, "Do we really need to do this now? I know you're excited and all, but Qrow said we would worry about this tomorrow."

"It is tomorrow," Ruby said as she poked the small clock on the corner of the screen that revealed it was almost two in the morning, her eyes innocently poking over the device from Naruto's viewpoint.

Naruto cracked a tiny grin at the response. He would've said something back had it not been for the figure creeping in slowly behind Ruby's shoulder. Ruby noticed his shifted gaze and quickly followed suit. As soon as she saw the slight glow from two mischievous red eyes she already felt a scream escaping her.

Just like she did to Naruto before, a hand covered her open maw, muffling the high pitched shriek as she looked at the newcomer.

After making her dramatic and sneaky appearance, Yang leaned into the light of Ruby's scroll with a large and cheeky smile plastered on her face, letting her eyes return back to their normal color by cutting the flow of aura. With her hair now its naturally messy self, along with a different orange tank top and small black shorts acting as pajamas, she teasingly said, "And what exactly is going on here, you two?"

"Nothing," Ruby answered in annoyance from the scare.

"It doesn't look like _nothing_." Yang looked between them before settling on her sister. "Not even a full day through and you're already sneaking into his room in the middle of the night?" Yang sniffed dramatically and gently embraced Ruby. "Stop growing up so fast!"

Ruby didn't put up much resistance to the hug. Even though she was a little annoyed from the teasing she really didn't want to start a stupid argument that would wake up their father down the hall. They at least didn't have to worry about Qrow, but that was only because he took off towards the city after dinner and saying he'd be back in the morning.

Although, now that she thought about it, maybe alerting their father to them both sneaking into Naruto's room at this hour wasn't exactly the better option out of the two…

Not receiving the immediate response she wanted from Ruby, Yang broke the hold and went into a more casual mood. "Seriously, though, what's going on?" she asked.

Naruto yawned again as he tried to become more comfortable. "Ruby couldn't sleep so she wanted to burn some energy off by showing some weapon plans, but you pretty much showed up right after she started."

"Ah," Yang sounded. "A little boring, but expected." She shrugged as she sat cross-legged.

"Well, sorry that I wasn't trying to suffocate him something," Ruby responded with an eye roll. "You didn't have to follow me either."

"Not like I had much of a choice. Your tossing and turning pretty much kept me from completely turning in. Mumbling to yourself about some bargain to your brain to let you sleep didn't exactly help."

"You've slept through worse. Besides, this is actually important. Anything we go over can drastically change how Naruto goes through his life! Right, Nar- Naruto?" Ruby questioned as she saw the once again sleeping face of the boy, his chest peacefully going up and down in a steady rhythm.

"Welp, looks like you bored him to sleep," Yang chimed in with her chin lazily resting on her hand.

"It was going fine until you showed up," Ruby retorted.

"Mhmm." Yang looked ready to go back her bed until she saw the moonlight softly reflect off of something near Naruto's head. A quick glance revealed the familiar silver locket lazily resting on his pillow as it was still wrapped around his neck. The shiny necklace never came up in conversation but she now found herself even more curious now that there wasn't much else to focus on. Without preamble, she found herself slowly reaching for it.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Ruby chastised.

"Just wanna see if there's any engraving or something," she replied simply.

However, right when she was about to make contact Yang found her wrist grabbed in a strong grip. Both surprised sisters saw that Naruto somehow had his arm snap out in a blink from under his blanket while still asleep. After grabbing the woman's wrist Naruto's eyes slowly blinked back open.

Taking a drowsy glance at the hand still near his face, Naruto tiredly asked, "You guys still here?"

"Uh, yeah?" Yang responded, her arm still held captive.

"How long has it been since I fell back asleep?"

"About ten seconds," Ruby answered.

Another yawn escaped the male again. "Oh… good times." A little more awareness returned to his brain as he sat up before barely noticing he had the older sister in his grip. "What were you trying to do?" he asked.

"Um, checking for a pulse?" the blonde replied in an obvious lie.

Naruto slowly looked at Ruby. "Was it the necklace?"

"Yep." There was no shame in ratting out her sister in something so simple.

Yang once again had his attention. "You couldn't wait until the world was awake like Ruby too? And Ayame always told me I was an impatient one…" he ended with a mutter more to himself.

Her hand now released, Yang said, "Sorry. Saw something shiny and you kinda just want to have at it. You understand that, right, whiskers?" she joked with an abashed grin.

"DId you hint at me being like a cat or something?" He got a nonchalant shrug in response. "Eh, I'm used to it, though try to keep everything related to foxes if you want to joke around like that again. I'm not sure if they chase shiny things, though."

"What, is that your preference even if you're not a faunus?" Yang asked curiously with a raised brow and smile.

"I guess. Look." Naruto then squinted and puffed out his cheeks a little to highlight the whisker marks, making the similarities to the canine in question become more apparent. The females got a good kick out of the action and let out their own set of quiet giggles. "Yeah, that got me plenty of cheek pinching as a kid…" The number of times his face was abused by the 'loving' embrace of older women, including Ayame and her friends for a good amount of time, was practically endless and left the afflicted areas red and sore.

Obviously, that didn't include the more negative side of the attention he experienced from a 'certain' type of people once they made their assumptions of his species from the marks alone.

"Anyway, you wanted to look at this?" he asked holding the main silver ornament up in a gentle grasp.

Yang hesitated for a small moment. "Well, not if it's too personal or something. I don't want to bother you too much."

"Says the person who just tried to grab it while he slept," Ruby commented.

"Don't need your input!" Yang quickly whispered back.

"Here."

The two young women looked back to see Naruto hold the shiny trinket out to be grabbed. "I don't mind you guys looking at it. There's nothing about it that I'm exactly hiding. It is special to me, though."

Yang was the first to take hold of it and look it over. It was easily a thing of beauty, looking even more stunning because of the moonlight gently casting down on the metal through the window. There weren't any engravings like she first guessed but she could easily tell it was able to open up. She looked at Naruto, silently asking for permission and received a nod after he gave a momentary glimpse towards his possession.

A soft click later and the contents of the centerpiece was open for her to view.

It was a simple picture, yet it spoke volumes the instant it came into her sight. Two people, a couple was her easy guess, were softly embracing each other with their sides pressed together as they posed for the camera. Soft smiles were plastered on their faces, the female expressing more excitement while the male's held a cherished pride of sorts. Despite the small difference between their grins, there was no doubt that they were full of love; the blue eyes from the male and the violet from the female were practically radiating in it. Yang took a second to acknowledge that the woman was absolutely beautiful with her blemishless visage surrounded by a practical waterfall of crimson hair, while the male had a distinct handsomeness to him as spiky yellow locks hugged his tanner and more sharper features.

After the finer details of the couple were memorized she finally focused onto the only other important part of the picture. While wearing casual clothing that were quickly skimmed over in her mind, the blonde saw that the man's hand was gently resting on the woman's stomach that had a barely noticeable bump. After taking that last bit in Yang felt her lips stretch a bit in their own smile at the obviously expecting parents.

"Aw…" Ruby quietly cooed over her sister's shoulder, having quickly moved to the spot once she saw the pendant open.

Yang looked back up at Naruto after staring at the image for a few moments longer. "I can see why it's special," she said gently.

Naruto smiled back, although his had a hint of sadness to it.

Quickly connecting some dots in her head, Ruby carefully asked, "You and Ayame aren't actually related by blood, are you?"

"Nope," was Naruto's simple reply. "Doesn't make her any less of a sister, though. She's known me for most of my life so blood doesn't matter. Same goes to old man Teuchi who's pretty much my father-figure and Ayame's actual one."

Both sisters definitely understood that blood relation didn't matter. Qrow's connection to Ruby was a prime example of that. He's her uncle and that's what he'll forever be no matter what.

After Yang and Ruby looked at the picture for a few moments longer, the former handed the pendant back to Naruto.

"I guess having different last names was a pretty good hint," Yang commented, remembering how Ayame introduced herself earlier.

Naruto nodded, but suddenly perked up as he went pointed at the both of them inquisitively. "Then what about...?"

"Same dad, different mom," Ruby answered his silent question while leaning on Yang's shoulder.

"Makes sense," Naruto replied before yawning once again.

Feeling they were there long enough, Yang stood up while gesturing for Ruby to do the same.

"Well, while sharing our personal lives is fun and all, we should probably save the rest for another time." The brightly haired woman stretched and sounded out her own yawn. "It's still only the first day," she continued. "C'mon, little sister, save the weapon fanatics for after we wake up."

Feeling out the mood Ruby begrudgingly stood up after a small huff. " _Fine_ ," she complained as she followed Yang to the hallway. As she was holding the doorknob to close the entrance, Ruby looked back at Naruto as he was once again laying down comfortably. "G'night- er- morning- um- whatever time it is… yeah… just go to sleep."

Before Naruto could give a response the door was hastily closed in what he guessed was for the girl to save face. Cracking a smile and quietly chuckling to himself, Naruto placed the silver necklace onto the bedside table securely before he blissfully went back into the world of dreams.

* * *

"Oh, so this is the Ruby you were talking about," Teuchi pleasantly stated as he leaned on the main counter of his establishment. As usual, his signature hat was atop his head with a semi-dirty towel hanging over his shoulder from some cleaning, but ever present was his squinted eyes as they wrinkled in a welcoming fashion from his smile.

"Hello, sir," Ruby cheerily yet somewhat meekly responded, giving the older man a cheesy wave as well in her first impression.

"Just call me Teuchi, young lady. No need for formalities around here."

"Yep, just feel free to call the old man anything," Naruto commented as he stood next to the scythe-wielder.

"Do you call any guy older than you an old man?" Ruby curiously asked.

Naruto leaned a little closer to the counter to pat the ramen owner on the shoulder. "Nah, for Teuchi it's been out of endearment for years, but for your drunkle Qrow it's to piss him off since he seems to be a little touchy about it."

"Is it worth being knocked around like a lifeless doll?" an amused Ruby retorted.

Naruto hummed to himself and tapped the counter a few times before he snapped his fingers and said, "Overall I say yes, mostly because in a weirdly effective way that helps me resist pain and gain fighting experience."

"I really shouldn't be surprised at this point," a weary feminine voice chimed in from the back of the kitchen. A few steps were heard until Ayame appeared from behind a stove and an assortment of hanging kitchen utensils. The pretty brunette said a small thank you to a departing customer before she stood next to her father.

"You really shouldn't," Naruto cheekily stated.

Ayame sighed before she gave Ruby a welcoming grin. "Nice to see you again, even though the first time was a video call a week ago."

Ruby smiled back. "Ditto. Naruto's told me a lot about you guys over the last few days so it's nice to finally meet in person."

Teuchi chuckled good naturedly. "Only good things I hope."

As Ayame was starting to pack some food off to the side she asked, "Wasn't your sister supposed to come along today too, Ruby?"

The black-haired girl scoffed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, but she said something came up. Apparently, she's riding around in the city somewhere on her motorcycle."

"Oh, well that's too bad. She seemed nice." Ayame finished securely wrapping up a couple of take-out boxes in a plastic bag and put it next to another on the counter that was already prepared. "I know you just got back, Naruto, but these are for a couple of the good regulars."

"That's fine." Naruto turned to Ruby. "You don't mind, right? We can go over some more stuff along the way and do something after like we planned with Yang. Hopefully she'll be done with whatever it is she's doing by then."

"A little ramen adventure doesn't sound so bad," she replied.

"Alright, cool." Naruto reached over and grabbed the separate bags while reading the tickets sticking to them on the top. "First one's for ol' shopkeep, huh?"

With Ayame being the one to have personally overseen the order and taken care of the food, Teuchi didn't know much about it. Thus, it wasn't a surprise to anyone sans Ruby to see Teuchi suddenly pause his cleaning of the countertop until he tensely continued as a frown overtook his normally friendly features.

Naruto rolled his eyes and Ayame sighed with the former saying, "He's not after your secrets, old man."

"You don't know that for certain," the elder Ichiraku replied while pointing his rag at the blond. "You told me he asked you more than once about how things go on in the kitchen and even how we get the broth and ramen the way it is, which, by apparent 'coincidence', happened to be right before he opened up A Simple Wok. I still swear that he's tried getting others to cozy on up around here and learn something. More than a few were asking too many questions around the same time period." Teuchi grumbled to himself as he went back to wiping off a few food stains. "He's never going to get his hands on my recipes…" he whispered irritably.

Naruto stared at the man blankly. "That was a long time ago and he operates on the other side of the district." The young man lifted up the bag for emphasis. "He only ordered onigiri and grilled chicken. No need to get so paranoid while he's technically supporting your business."

"Now he's after my chicken..."

Naruto shook his head along with Ayame. "Yep, you're going senile. The guy probably has more important things to worry about."

"Oh, don't get me started on those other businesses of his," Teuchi replied with a twitch of his brow. "He just had to open up a noodle shop once we started picking up steam and expanded the menu, even though he was and still is running a dust shop. Now's he even gone ahead and opened up an arcade, a military and police supply store, a dry cleaners and a motorcycle dealership! And he's always there whenever I or you two pass by any of them! It makes no sense!"

"An arcade?" Ruby stated with interest. "Wanna do that later?" she asked Naruto.

"Sure." Naruto looked and saw that the older male was perhaps getting ready to continue his rant so he quickly ushered Ruby to follow him to the entrance, bags in hand with both destinations put to memory. "C'mon, before these get cold."

"Don't let him break you!" Teuchi semi-shouted behind the retreating teens, Ayame next to him rubbing her eyes with a single hand in exasperation as a few confused customers watched on.

"So… how often is he like that? He seemed really laid back at first," Ruby inquired as she was steadily walking beside the Uzumaki on the sidewalk.

Naruto sighed. "Only when his self-proclaimed old man rivalry is brought up. Any other time not much can make him lose composure. The only time I've ever seen him really angry was when someone was hitting on Ayame over and over." He chuckled at the memory of Teuchi sending an overly specific threat involving exactly three whole eggplants, a spork, a rolling pin, and a fire dust crystal.

"Oh." Quickly changing the subject Ruby pulled out her scroll and said, "Anyway, back to where we left off a couple of days ago." After a few taps, a bunch of notes with various edits and highlights were pulled up onto the screen. With a small detachable stylus in hand, Ruby continued. "Have you decided the bullet size yet? That'll narrow down a lot of different gun models we can work with."

The male hummed. "Everything has to also be a gun nowadays, doesn't it…?" he quietly said to himself. "Well, I don't think I'm gonna go with smaller rounds. I'm pretty sure everything within a small range and arm's length is already covered with what I have in mind, so I might as well have something that packs more of a punch from farther away. No matter what we end up with in the end I'm going to have to practice a lot at a shooting range or something anyway."

There was a sudden glint in Ruby's eyes. "So… maybe… sniper buddies?" she trailed off with part meekness and hope.

Naruto amusedly chuckled and raised a brow down at her.

Ruby cleared her throat hastily and looked ahead with a bit of embarrassment creeping into her. "That sounded cooler in my head…" she whispered in defeat.

"I'm sure it did," he replied with his grin widening. The last week had been pretty refreshing for him. As planned he had worked with Qrow bright and early after his first spent night at the family residence, and just like Naruto had hoped, he was put through the grinder.

Like it was mentioned by the huntsman the prior day, he arrived before anyone else was up and made Naruto run to the shores of Vale and back to get his blood going and start the foundation of strengthening his already impressive pool of stamina and aura. By the time he came back about two hours after his start everyone was fully awake and had been in the process of their own routines.

Taiyang was going over some paperwork that looked to be split up between relating to his teaching and official missions. Yang was doing some shadow sparring by herself in the front yard while Ruby sat nearby as she cleaned Crescent Rose with Zwei lazily sitting beside her. Qrow himself was patiently waiting for the blond as he ran down the now easily found path to the property.

After a quick cooldown they had a repeat of the day before—without a surprise punch to the face—and fought the rest of the morning and early afternoon away. This time Qrow actually taught the male teen by stopping every now and then to correct forms and give bits of advice regarding hand-to-hand and swordsmanship. In the blond's perspective, he only learned a little in a few days but the experienced huntsman noticed that Naruto soaked in whatever was shown to him pretty quickly, mostly in a practical sense. In the back of his mind the Branwen was looking forward to how much Naruto's abilities improved once he had his new blade in hand.

The rest of the week, with a couple of days free due to other responsibilities for both parties, went by in a similar way with Naruto staying for a bit longer after training to socialize with the family that he was quickly becoming friends with, especially Yang and Ruby. That's what led to the current Saturday afternoon they were now enjoying. Naruto had done the usual with Qrow in the morning and the three teens decided to hang out in Vale when they were done.

"See you when the next shipment comes in!" Naruto exclaimed to the shopkeep as he walked out the front door of From dust Till Dawn.

The smiling old man behind the counter waved to the departing teens. Like always he was recognizable from the baldness on top of his head with spiky gray near shoulder-length hair wrapping around the sides and back. Like Teuchi, his eyes were forever squinted and were enhanced by the wrinkles present from the many years of life experience. "Mhmm," he said in response as the door closed with a chime ringing out.

"So you move and organize boxes of dust crystals for him every once in awhile?" Ruby asked from beside Naruto, absentmindedly reading bits from a magazine she just bought from the man's store.

"Yep. We worked out a deal a long time ago that once I would need it he'd give me a nice discount on dust. If this whole huntsman thing doesn't work out—I doubt that would ever happen, though— then he'd pay me a fair amount of lien instead."

Ruby eyes lit up. "If you can get your hands on plenty of dust then we are _so_ going with the capsule idea!"

"Think that's actually good for me?" Naruto replied as he scratched the side of his head sheepishly.

The young woman nodded her head excitedly. "Yeah! With a big supply of dust and your aura you'll be a lot more dangerous up close and even mid-range! And if you don't want to shoot with something small within a short distance then we can go with anything around the middle of the pack to Crescent Rose, maybe even something more explosive!" The girl was practically vibrating in her steps and dangerously squeezed the now rolled up magazine held in her hand. "I can't wait for us to experiment with this!"

Naruto laughed at her enthusiasm as they kept walking. Eventually, after a few more blocks they reached the heart of the commercial district right after the sun finally set. Despite the somewhat late hour, they knew they still had plenty of time to have some fun with Yang after. Their speed practically guaranteed a short trip to anywhere around them.

While the tall buildings and unique architecture held her attention for a bit, Ruby slowly became more and more focused on the muffled music that was progressively getting louder. Before long she found herself bobbing her head to the beat as the duo walked on.

Once they turned one last corner they were able to see the building that held the club that was blasting the tunes for its visitors. The huntress-to-be, though, found her attention switched again as she gazed upon the yellow motorcycle parked in front of it, Bumblebee it was affectionately called by the female Xiao Long.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Did Yang really ditch us to go clubbing?!"

Naruto raised an interested eyebrow before shrugging. "We have to go in there anyway so I guess we can find out."

"Who are you delivering that one to anyway?" she asked, eyeing the remaining plastic bag that Naruto held.

"The DJ here. The guy really craves ramen on the job, especially over the weekend."

As they got closer to the entrance the doors were pushed open before out walked another male and female duo that were quite the eye-catching sight in Naruto's opinion.

The male of the two stood out easily enough as he casually waved his walking cane about in a smooth manner. The motion of the cane led to the arm that was covered in a long white sleeve that continued on into the rest of the well-pressed suit of the same color. Black shoes confidently stepped along the sidewalk and matched the black pants above them. Orange hair was mostly hidden by the black bowler hat on top with the exception of neatly combed bangs that dropped down to cover the man's right eye. The eye not hidden away was green and looked at the approaching teens with a hint of cockiness as he continued to hold a smirk that let out of a small puff of smoke from the cigar he was smoking.

Yes, while the man held a certain uniqueness about him—especially with his hair color getting a mental nod of approval from Naruto—the young woman beside him seemed to beat him by a bit in that category.

First off, she was short, even shorter than Ruby. The colors of pink, brown and white stood out in her outfit with the clothes tastefully being a white long-sleeved jacket cut off below the chest only on the front that led to a dark corset, black gloves, brown pants that sunk into knee-length high heeled white boots, and a multitude of necklaces hanging loosely around her neck. Her shoulder-length hair fit the color scheme as half of it right down the middle was brown with the other being pink along with a tint of white. She, surprisingly enough, seemed to have heterochromia iridum as her eyes were also brown and pink except they were opposite colors than the section of hair above them and hitting home on a neapolitan theme. Like her partner she too carried something, though in a seemingly more innocent yet professional sense, that being a decoratively patterned pink umbrella with a curved handle of a cane.

As both groups passed each other the orange-haired man tipped his hat at the teens as he continued to stride on in satisfaction as if he just received good news. The short girl, on the other hand, gave a nod and wink to Naruto while giving Ruby a sort of curtsy bow combo, all with a polite smile plastered on her pale face.

Naruto responded in kind with his own nod to the two while Ruby had a quick mental fight with herself on how to proceed. After a stutter in her step, she cheekily smiled back while holding the sides of her dark skirt in a rushed curtsy.

No words were spoken as both parties continued on to their desired directions.

Once out of hearing distance Ruby looked like she was about to say something but was cut off from the front doors blasting open violently as club goers started rushing outside, causing Naruto and Ruby to quickly hug the walls as to not get trampled by the startled crowd. Many of them were yelling about the cause and although it was mostly just jumbled words merging together the duo were able to pick up a few key words like 'yellow', 'fight', and 'girls'.

As the crowd finally dispersed to wherever they chose to go Naruto and Ruby saw that, somehow, Bumblebee escaped the stampede spotless.

Letting the moment pass, Ruby stared at the motorcycle before sighing. "You didn't see anyone with a head full of bright yellow hair in the crowd, did you?" she blankly asked Naruto.

"Nope."

Ruby groaned at the most likely implication of what was going on. "Great."

"Might as well go inside and see what's up," Naruto commented as he headed on in with Ruby following along.

As they cut through the now glaringly empty lobby the music became much louder once the final set of doors were opened to the club's main floor. Bright flashing colors of all sorts blinked rapidly as they went on in conjunction with the music and caught the attention of the two teens for just a quick moment until they were forced to step aside and dodge a flying object heading right towards their position.

Watching the black blur shoot by in between them, Naruto and Ruby saw that the blur was, in fact, a man dressed fancily in an all black suit with a red tie after he was forced to a stop by impacting against the hallway wall. With his red sunglasses hanging off of one ear and noticeably cracked, along with his audible groans of pain, they were easily able to tell the man had been launched by painful means.

Taking a quick guess of the reason the man was in his position, Ruby slowly turned her head with a bit of dread as the sounds of fighting became much more apparent to hers and Naruto's ears.

"Junior's going to be pissed… Actually, where the hell is he?" she heard Naruto utter as he was the first of the two to glance around at the ongoing damage done to the dance floor and the surrounding area. With her vision fully on the stage, she joined Naruto in watching the practically one-sided fight between Yang and the various and similarly looking men like the one out of commission behind them.

"Dang it, Yang," Ruby cursed to herself as she watched her sister continue her beatdown with a focused yet excitable gleam on her face.

She was in her more common garb this time, of which included an orange scarf around her neck, a yellow crop top underneath a tan jacket that exposed her midriff, black fingerless gloves, black mini-shorts surrounded by a brown belt and a garment that looked to only be the back side of a skirt, a lavender bandana wrapped around her left knee, and visible orange socks—the right one scrunching down a bit—underneath knee-high brown boots.

Naruto was obviously glad that another person appreciated the holy color of orange.

However, the crown jewels of her apparel were the bright yellow gauntlets dubbed Ember Celica. Each of them roared with every punch Yang threw as the shotgun shells within them shot off to deal serious damage. Each little explosion from the dust igniting lit up the area around her, though it was not that significant compared to the lights of the dance floor. It was a nice display to behold from an outsider's perspective but it was horrifying for the henchman that tried to take on the young woman with their superior numbers.

Unfortunately, their efforts were useless in trying to deal with someone who has undergone her fair of huntress training.

Once the last man of the small mob went down unconscious, Naruto, Yang and Ruby saw that from the DJ booth overlooking the room's entirety, another similarly man with an oversized bear mask whipped out a submachine gun and started firing down at the brightly-haired female.

Instantly she started sprinting at him from across the room, weaving here and there and not letting a single bullet strike her person. As the final round left the weapon's drum magazine Yang focused her aura to her legs before leaping up the impressive height and over the booth. Without hesitation, she kicked the mask in the face until she struck his body a few more times for good measure. Once she deemed him no longer a threat she kicked him up and fired Ember Celica right into his gut. From Naruto and Ruby's point of view the man flew in a magnificent arc in the building's airspace until he slammed onto the floor, his body bouncing a little farther after the impact.

With a squeak, the now unconscious DJ slid past two new pairs of feet, both noticeably covered by fashionable heeled boots.

Yang looked down at the new arrivals and saw that they were a pair of teenaged girls, twins as a matter of fact. They both held a bored kind of look on their faces and even held the same posture. They were utterly alike in practically everything sans the length of their smooth black hair and color of clothing, one having a white strapless dress and cyan accessories and makeup, while the other had the same but in a red and black combination.

The more noticeable parts of their outfits were the weapons. The girl in white had blades on her boots while the one in red had bladed claws around her wrists.

Naruto and Ruby didn't hear what the twins said to each other but they immediately set off to fight Yang with an arrogant air around them.

Ruby took a step forward while reaching for Crescent Rose behind but Naruto lightly grabbed her shoulder to stop her.

"What are you-"

"Don't," Naruto said while still staring ahead as the three girls started to fight. "This seems like it'll be fun to watch."

"Why? Don't know if you haven't noticed but Yang's been wrecking this place apart and I'd rather speed things along before any more unwanted attention decides to show up," Ruby replied.

Naruto smirked and shook his head in a negative. "Nope. Those girls have always been a little snooty so I think they need to be taken down a peg. I haven't exactly seen Yang go all out besides a little sparring but I'm sure she gots this. Those two are definitely better than the rest of the guys here but they've only ever had to be capable bodyguards against the more common thugs and such. We'll step in if things get a little too dicey."

Resigning to stand beside the male for the time being, Ruby crossed her arms and critically started to watch as well. "And you think you can stop her if push comes to shove?" she questioned.

Naruto hummed a little until he gave an indifferent shrug. "Don't know, but it'll be fun to find out at some point."

For the next minute or so the two bore witness to a practical dance between the three as they fought on. Despite the twins having the benefit of actual skill and teamwork, Yang was able to keep up plentifully enough. Each side had their own share of decent hits but Yang showed a fair bit more of finesse and durability as time went by. Like in any fight between capable combatants, even the tiniest mistake or instant of running low on energy can stop the fight completely. Sadly, the girl in red was the first one to be on the bad end of the deal as Yang took advantage and dealt a vicious combo of punches before one final punch of explosive dust sent her flying through a pillar of decorative glass.

Naruto nodded in an impressed manner while Ruby pumped her fist to herself, silently rooting on her sister after the more competitive side of her started seeping through into her mind.

With one opponent out of the way Yang doubled down and focused on the deadly dance she was now undergoing with the kick-based fighter.

"Seems she takes a little more time to plan when it isn't a straight up fist fight," the blond commented as he saw Yang walk backward as she and her enemy continuously gave a few feints, all while steadily moving in one direction hoping to see some sort of opening on one another.

"Huh, kinda expected her to get right back into- oh, nevermind." Ruby stopped once she saw her sister suddenly throw out another combo of punches that met their marks perfectly.

Guessing the fight was coming to an end, Naruto said, "It was fun while it- crap, Melanie incoming!"

Like the man now wearing a busted bear mask the girl in white, Melanie, was shot off by a blast of buckshot and went through the air. The two spectators didn't exactly expect her to fly in their direction, though.

As the girl helplessly approached her yelling grew louder, but her shout was completely stopped once she slammed into Naruto's waiting grip. The force from the catch pushed the blond back and he probably would've fallen had it not been for Ruby pushing with all her might against his back, her boots letting out a few squeaks as they dragged back a couple of feet.

Once they stopped Melanie dizzily blinked until her mind cleared enough to know she was in a bridal carry. Once meeting blue eyes with her green ones she uttered, "Naruto?"

Ruby poked her head from the side of Naruto's shoulder. "And Ruby. Hi," she greeted and only received a confused blink from the other female.

"Yep," he stated. "Cool fight. Would've liked it to be longer but it was still entertaining. You okay?"

While she still felt a bit of fresh soreness from her fight she was pretty sure she would live. "Yeah."

After her response, Naruto carefully set her back onto her feet. Once she finished checking herself over and not noticing Ruby fixing the positioning of the flower in her hair, she said, "What are you doing here?"

"The usual." Naruto lifted the still perfectly fine plastic bag filled with food.

"Oh, and the-"

"Yes, yes, and I have you and Miltia's _dumplings_ ," Naruto replied with his own cheap imitation of the twin's more arrogant tone of voice at the end. "Spoiled princesses," he finished with a not-so-subtle whisper.

Melanie huffed before she and the other two turned to see the other twin approach with a limp in her step.

"Still alive, Miltia? You took a few good shots to the feather there," Naruto teased.

On cue, the black feather in Miltia's short hair fell off to be hastily caught by her. "Very funny you whiskered buffoon," she said back with annoyance.

"As always," Naruto proudly replied until he and the others saw that Yang—who still hadn't noticed their presence somehow—faced off with a tall and well-dressed man carrying a large hunk of metal over his shoulder. If his height wasn't a solid giveaway, then his short haircut, well-trimmed beard and signature red tie and black vest certainly were.

"That thing's also a rocket launcher?" Naruto curiously said to himself. "Huh, neat."

"You're going to pay for this," they heard him say in anger as he aimed and fired a cluster of rockets that exploded around Yang's previous position, her having to hastily roll out of the way.

"Um, is this considered dicey enough?" Ruby questioned her whiskered companion.

"Yeah, I think we're getting there." He gestured for the girl to follow. "C'mon, before Junior completely destroys his own place. You two want to step in?" he asked the twins while they were now sitting down on the steps leading to the main floor and adjacent bar.

In unison they waved him off in a shooing motion. "You'll be fine," they both said.

"Uh-huh, try not to break another nail," he retorted.

As Naruto and Ruby walked closer to the improvised battleground Junior was swinging away at the teenaged girl with his now transformed bat.

"Okay, children. I think it's time to stop!" Naruto called but met no response as they kept on fighting.

With adrenaline pumping through her Yang finally decided to up her game by taking a moment to focus her aura as she punched her fists together, causing the energy she gathered to explode around her outright. With a bit of awe Naruto watched as Yang's hair seemed to catch fire before she sprinted forwards and brutally punched the surprised club owner repeatedly until he was separated from his weapon. The last punch she executed sent the man rolling a little bit away across the ground, though he did end up using the momentum to stand back to his feet.

As he calmed himself down he looked at the strands of yellow hair he seemingly grabbed and ripped out from the last bit of contact he had with the blonde troublemaker.

"Oh no…" Ruby whispered fearfully, slowly taking a few steps back while Naruto looked at her confused.

Whatever curiosity Naruto had was answered when Yang shouted a war cry of anger as the aura around her exploded even more, highlighting her still fiery hair and now deep red eyes. Without wasting a single moment more, Yang shot forwards with one final move in mind to finish it all. With fear clearly on his face Junior took the angry punch to his cheek fully and was blown through the air like many already have and broke through one of the windows near the ceiling to let in natural light.

Naruto winced from the attack, hoping the man that gave him a good pay day every now and then wasn't completely broken. Putting the man's well-being at the back of his mind for the moment, Naruto jogged towards the still glowing fighter.

"Um, you done now?" Naruto called out to her before she looked to be getting ready to jump after the tall man.

For the first time during the whole confrontation, Yang finally acknowledged Naruto's presence but it wasn't in the way the male wanted it. Still high on the feeling of battle, Yang figured another voice meant a new opponent waiting to get destroyed like the others. Sadly, in the moment she didn't recognize the voice to belonging to her new friend and turned while shouting again, throwing her fist forward with the leftover energy she built up in hopefully one last punch.

As her aura acted as rocket burners behind her, she almost instantly reached where Naruto now stood, his eyes widening a bit from the sudden threat.

Off to the side Ruby was fully prepared to use her speed to tackle him out of the way, but stopped once she saw an orange glow appear behind Naruto's back. She probably would've gone on with her hasty plan anyways but the sudden calmness that overtook Naruto's face stopped her.

Meanwhile in Naruto's head, he felt his instincts take over from the incoming threat. If he were to think properly at the moment he would be pretty certain that he could get out of the way in time, but with the bag of his delivery still in his grip due to a little forgetfulness to set it down, his inner consciousness overtook his mind with one objective.

Protect the ramen. And that's what he was going to do while showing he was capable of doing it by forceful measures.

Without a second thought, Naruto focused his aura and felt something emerge from behind him, eliciting a gasp from Ruby and even the twins as they watched on. Whatever was summoned struck forward towards Yang, revealing itself to be a glowing orange chain with a spiked tip. The hardy looking object quickly met the angry blonde and wrapped around her midsection, hoping to stop her momentum. Seeing that she didn't slow down by much, Naruto sent another chain to encircle itself around her chest while also locking the arm she was using for the punch tightly to her side.

The second chain seemed to do the trick in making sure she couldn't hit him directly, but with her excited mind still overtaking her senses, she used her remaining free arm to send a haphazard punch and shoot her last shotgun round. Once the bang echoed, Yang snapped out of it and saw that her target was Naruto.

"Heads up!" she hastily shouted to him a ways away, the chains having pushed her further away from him after she slowed down completely. While she knew the round wouldn't do much to him since she saw him take worse hits from her uncle, she didn't want to unnecessarily inflict any harm.

As the glowing ball of pain headed right in his direction Naruto looked to concentrate a bit more before a third chain appeared from his back, though it seemed to come out shakily. Nevertheless, it did its job and successfully blocked the dust-fueled buckshot.

With no more immediate threats in sight, Naruto sighed with a drip of sweat running down the side of his face as he mentally commanded the third chain to disappear in a small burst of orange particles. He then calmly walked forward as the first two chains carried Yang in his direction to meet in the middle.

While everyone was definitely surprised by the turn of events, Yang especially was a bit more intrigued by the chains since she felt them somehow restrict her aura and somehow get her back to a normal state faster than she naturally would.

"Had your fill yet?" Naruto questioned Yang once they were face-to-face.

Even though she was still lazily being hung in the air she couldn't help but smile mischievously. "For now."

"What the flip are _these_?!" Ruby suddenly shouted from next to them. With petals floating down around her the now excited weapon enthusiast burst towards the chains holding her sister. While experimentally touching the solid aura material she eagerly shouted, "What the heck is your semblance, Naruto?!"

No further words could be spoken as, due to the shattered glass Junior flew through, distant sirens started to become apparent to their ears.

Feeling a little nervous now, Naruto dispelled his chains to free Yang and said, "Maybe we should discuss this lat-"

"Cheese it!" Ruby fearfully shouted before she turned into a blur of crimson and propelled herself into the air to the other side of the room and crashed through another window.

"Uh…" Naruto sounded, looking at the new hole and not knowing exactly what to say in response to Ruby's instant escape.

Has she had to run from the cops before?

Shaking the thought off, Naruto turned to where Yang was and found her to now be missing. The male rapidly looked around until he somehow heard Yang's echoed voice from outside.

"Rendezvous at the ramen stand!" Right after the command, Naruto heard the roar of Bumblebee's engine until the sound grew quieter from her leaving the area.

"What the…?" Naruto's mind kicked back into gear as the sirens drew dangerously close. "Shit!" Somehow he instinctively freed himself to curse the moment Ruby was no longer near him.

He was about mid-stride to leave when he suddenly remembered the bag still miraculously being held by him. Very quickly he appeared next to the surprised twins and handed them a takeout box marked with 'M&M' and hurriedly said, "See ya later, dattebayo!" In the next moment he slid next to the still unconscious DJ and set the now securely tied bag with ramen onto his chest. Padding around his pants and jacket Naruto found his wallet and took out the usual payment and tip before putting the item back in its home.

"Enjoy, bud," he said in a hurry and started sprinting up the wall with his aura and jumped through the exit Ruby created.

Melanie and Miltia watched as he disappeared from sight with blank expression. Knowing they were only doing their jobs and therefore wouldn't be in trouble when the authorities arrived they calmly started to eat the food Naruto brought them with every delivery he did for the DJ.

With a black eye forming on Melanie's face and a couple of bumps throbbing on Miltia's cheeks, the former said, "Why does everything involving him have to be so weird?"

After chewing a few times, Miltia easily replied with, "Because he's weird."

"Oh, right."

* * *

(Omake - The Guardian)

The Geist.

This particular type of Grimm was a bit more unique than its more animal-esque brethren as it took on a ghostly form. As such, its main ability to possess inanimate objects for its own use go hand and hand with its physical appearance, that of which was a legless and somewhat skeletal-like form covered by a few white spikes and ribs on its upper torso. Of course, the more eye-catching feature like any Grimm was its mask as it creepily stared at whatever it so chooses.

Geists were always a pain for those unprepared and just generally less qualified to deal with them, and like all Grimm, they were attracted to negative emotions.

That was how this one particular Geist somehow found itself floating through the wilds of Patch looking for a specific source of negativity. It didn't know why it went the distance for its target, but there was something about it that it just couldn't ignore. No other lower Grimm would bat an eye and go on the hunt for negativity so dormant that, even with its intelligence capable of strategy and the sense to retreat, was immensely difficult to pick up.

After a long journey, it found itself at a log cabin house and started the final leg of its search. The negativity was stronger as it floated to the second floor level from outside so that was a solid starting point. Very sneakily it floated through an open bedroom window and noticed it was occupied by two girls. Though it would've normally attacked with some devised plan of possession, they were not what it was looking for.

The geist was about to move on but its gaze met the most hollow pair of eyes it had ever seen. It did not know what they belonged to but it couldn't escape its sight. Whatever the creature was, it was laying on the face of one of the girls and defiantly stared it down.

For some reason, the ghostly Grimm couldn't move and started to feel more and more unsettled as the seconds ticked on. Not much time passed until the geist felt its form desperately shaking in fear from its position just inside the open window.

Why was it reacting like this? What form of power did this creature hold within its stare alone that the geist felt like its insides and very spirit was being ripped apart?

The geist didn't have the answers and it was too late anyway.

With an almost inaudible silent screech of pain, the geist's body exploded in a burst of black smoke that immediately dissipated, creating a small breeze to gently blow over the occupants of the room.

Ruby, who was lying in a spread eagle position sideways on her bed, quickly sat up and removed Naruto's sleeping cap that she put on her face in frustration from the lack of sleep. Unnoticeably behind her Yang stirred a little.

 _What was that?_ she thought to herself. She could've sworn that she heard something in her half asleep state.

Looking around the room and not seeing anything in particular Ruby shrugged it off. After grabbing her scroll she picked up the sleeping cap and brought its goofy gaze to eye level. "C'mon, hopefully Naruto won't be angry if we bother him a little," she whispered before quietly exiting her room.

* * *

 **AN: Yeeeeah, sorry this took a long time... again. Work and no motivation can be a real pain in the ass.**

 **Hopefully you guys liked this. I'm kinda out of touch with the whole writing thing right now so please be honest with your thoughts in a review, and don't be shy if you got some questions and want to PM me. Also, it seems a good chunk of those asking stuff are guests, so please make an account so I can answer them properly. I don't want to fill up the word count with these notes and I don't want to make the review section some sort of chat room. That's kinda just stupid and a cheap way to up the review count.**

 **Once again, thanks to Fan-Of-FictionX01 for helping shape this chapter. You deserve many friendly haikus to be sent your way.**

 **Anyway, there's not much else to say besides a warning that I have no update schedule and my writing ability is just random as all hell. I actually wrote the final 3k words last night so... yeah.**

 **Thanks for reading you guys. Kinda surprised this has a decent following despite not having guaranteed OPness and pairings. We'll see how my writing goes in the future.**

 **Later!**


	4. Congrats, It's a Sword!

**AN: Yadda, yadda, yadda, update took some time, yadda yadda, read the thing.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Congrats, It's a Sword!**

"Pull!"

A shattering sound echoed around the area.

"Pull!"

Another burst sounded.

"Pu-"

"When the hell is it going to be enough, dattebayo?!"

Qrow, relaxingly sitting on a tree stump with his flask in hand, grunted lightly at the interruption. "Whenever I say so," he drawled.

Naruto, in his usual outfit minus the hoodie, let the two orange chains emerging from his back relax. With sweat matting his hairline, the blond said, "We've been out here forever! How many of those things do you guys have?!"

Qrow glanced to his nieces, Yang having only recently joined after cleaning Bumblebee, sitting comfortably on the grass next to him. While Yang was leaning back with her arms supporting her, Ruby was manning a clay pigeon thrower. With a look of concentration and tongue lolling out of the corner of her mouth, the young Rose made a couple of adjustments before loading the machine again with the clay disks brought to her by Zwei from the shed.

Looking back at the irate male teen, Qrow replied with, "More than enough. The girls used to train with this all the time for target practice so we're not running out anytime soon. Now pull!"

On command Ruby shot another disk through the air over Naruto, making him internally sigh before he sent a chain to meet it. With practiced timing the spiked tip pierced its target and made it explode in various little shards.

This went on a few more times before Qrow spoke up. "Okay, I think that's good for now. The last one was the thirtieth in a row I was looking for. We started over for the few times you missed."

In response, Naruto walked over to their position before plopping down between Yang and Ruby. "I'm surprised you were actually paying attention with that flask in your face so much."

The whiskered male's comment earned him a small towel to be unexpectedly thrown at his face, obscuring his vision and making his head snap back a little. After removing the object, Naruto sent a small glare at the older male that threw it, though his mood got a little better once Zwei approached with a cold bottle of water in his mouth. Thanking the canine with some scratches behind the ear, Naruto took a few greedy gulps from the bottle before wiping off any lingering perspiration on his face with the towel.

"Minus the sass, I'd say you have decent control over those things," Qrow stated interestingly. "Why didn't you ever bring them up?"

Naruto looked curious. "What, you and those other stalkers never saw them on camera? I thought you were just being quiet about them for whatever reason."

"The cameras were only in Emerald Forest since that's academy property. Maybe you made a habit of using them somewhere else without even knowing it." Qrow took that moment to take another sip from his flask. "Your swordsmanship and that glowy shield thing were the only abilities we were able to watch critically, besides the fact that you could take a beating, of course."

Naruto scoffed and blankly stared ahead unamused. "Funny," he said without emotion. "But yeah, now that I think about it, I only used the chains in Forever Fall to train my control and have some extra support against the ursai because they're tougher. I developed the chains against an ursa anyway so they're pretty fit for them. Beowolves and boarbatusks are more common in Emerald, so because of their better speed I used them to help with the more up close and personal aspect of my fighting."

Ruby, while petting Zwei on her lap, said, "Huh, so that's why you said you were fine within a small range. Because of the chains having a pretty good stretching distance to wrap around and block stuff along with using your sword and the rest of your semblance, right?"

Naruto nodded and pointed to the leftover pile of clay pigeons. "They can stab well enough too, as you can already tell. After getting the hang of it I can stab one right through the head of an ursa, though it's easier when I hold it down using another chain."

"Though that begs another question," Yang chimed in as she lazily glanced at Naruto. "How do those things suppress aura?"

Naruto and the others blinked in confusion. "What?" Naruto replied.

Sitting up straighter, Yang said, "Yesterday when you stopped me I felt my semblance being calmed down, and it was faster than me doing it naturally. I was full of energy one second and then back to normal in another."

"Uh…" Naruto muttered. "That's the first time I've heard of that. Grimm don't exactly give me feedback on what the chains do to them."

"Did you ever ask?" Ruby asked innocently.

"No...?" Naruto responded blankly.

"Then that's probably why," Ruby said in a matter-of-fact tone. She then turned to face the male a little earnestly. "Seriously, what's your semblance? You never told us last night because of the hurry! It's like a flipping multi-tool! You can stick to stuff, have a shield, and use these chains! It isn't _fair_!" she whined with a dramatic pout, making Naruto laugh lightly.

Qrow took that moment to lightly flick the side of his niece's ear. "Variety doesn't mean invincibility, Ruby. Everything has a weakness you can exploit."

Now rubbing her afflicted ear, Ruby quietly said, "But it's still cool…"

Naruto shrugged. "I haven't learned to shoot yet and I can't make rose petals magically appear, though."

Pausing and closing her eyes while nodding to herself, Ruby hummed in agreement. "That's true." She quickly shook her head and pointed her finger at Naruto's face with authority, her hand slightly shaking for added emphasis on her part. "Now answer the question!"

Naruto looked at her in amusement before settling down and shrugging nonchalantly. "Don't know exactly."

"Really?" Ruby replied. "You said you've had it since you were a kid, right? You have to have some idea."

"I do but it's like you said. It's kinda like a multi-tool with its uses but my learning of them has had a good chunk of time in between. The shield I've had for nearly a year so that's what I've been practicing with a lot lately. I got the chains a little over a year and a half ago and the first time I discovered being able to walk on surfaces like walls, with water later on, was when I was twelve. Don't know the gritty details of how I can shape and stick to stuff with my aura exactly, but I'm not gonna question its usefulness."

Showing a small example, Naruto raised his hand to Ruby for a high five.

Lightly smacking her hand with his, Ruby quickly found that her palm was stuck to his. Doing a few test tugs, Ruby giggled at the action and whispered a small, 'whoa.' "How did you even find out about this and the others?" Ruby asked after Naruto let her go.

Naruto's face flinched for a moment before nervously smiling at the memories. "Besides the surface walking which was as easy as trying to kill a bug on my wall, the other two were… kinda when I thought I was getting close to being hurt _really_ bad. A good burst of adrenaline and then _bam_ , I'm saved with a new part of my semblance. I'm not exactly sure if there's more but I'm not too keen on purposely making myself think I'm going to die to do so." The blond's eyes widened once he realized something. "Please don't tell Ayame about how I learned that..."

Pocketing the new blackmail ammo in the back of her mind, Yang curiously raised a brow and asked, "Qrow, can semblances really be like that with different forms?"

After taking another swig out of his flask, Qrow said, "Every semblance is unique. While some rare ones can be hereditary, everything else is still the luck of the draw, even though this particular one is a little varied and tougher to figure out." The man glanced at Naruto. "And with a bigger aura pool added to those abilities to make him even more annoying in a fight, this brat seems to have someone watching over him."

Naruto felt a little smug at Qrow's words, but his thoughts were cut off as he continued.

"But like I said before, everything has a weakness. He probably doesn't have complete control over his repertoire and they more than likely have limits anyway. Anyone can be beaten with a sound strategy and some skill. From what I can tell, he somehow has the ability to shape or project his aura, but if it was that simple then I'm sure he'd have a lot more to work with from a little imagination. Not like semblances each have a specific name anyway. Ruby has speed and Yang has a temper tantrum. If I were to give his some sort of basic description, it'd probably be aura transformation or manipulation, though it's obviously to an extent since there's only three abilities to use at will."

"It's not a temper tantrum…" Yang pointedly stated with a small glare at her uncle.

Not batting an eye at his blonde niece, Qrow replied with, "I call it as I see it. You get mad, you go nuts with a power boost. It's that simple."

Yang clicked her tongue in annoyance and rolled her eyes. Now looking up at the clear afternoon sky, Yang asked, "So now what?"

Waiting for such an opportunity to reveal itself, Ruby shot up to her feet excitedly, not noticing that she sent a surprised Zwei a little bit into the air to be hastily caught by Naruto.

The canine gave him an appreciative bark.

"We can finally get started on making Naruto's weapon!" the black-haired teen yelled out with vigor. In the next instant, she slid to her knees right in front of Naruto and used both of her hands to firmly grasp the front of his shirt and pulled his face close to hers in desperation. "We already got most of the details done! _Please_!"

Not expecting the outburst, Naruto stayed silent as he was forced to lean back from Ruby's begging visage. The metal-plated headband that was brought today to join his other momento around his neck scrunched up around his chin from his friend's grip to enhance the awkward position he found himself in. Naruto's only response was to look back and forth at the other two people present to hopefully get some support.

"Easy there, sis," Yang said as she stood behind Ruby to pull her back a tad, though it was not entirely successful as the younger potential huntress's shimmering gaze didn't waver, nor did her hardened grip on the Uzumaki's shirt.

Now not squeezed between the two teens, Zwei rolled off of Naruto's lap until he stopped on his back on the grass. Even while in the position, the canine barked up at Ruby, somehow coming off in a chastising manner to those present. That seemed to do the trick as Ruby blinked and reigned in her sudden excitement, letting go of the whiskered blond's shirt and settling to sit on the back of her folded legs.

"Heh, um, sorry…" she quietly said with her gaze bashfully looking towards her lap.

Naruto fixed his headband and shirt before looking at Ruby. "It's cool. Just… control yourself when we're around a lot of potentially painful objects during the building process."

"No worries there," she responded in a chipper tone before continuing passionately. "No harm will come to any precious weapons or weapon parts on my watch!"

Naruto squinted at her with a nervous smile. "And no harm to the weapon owner's body… right?"

The girl ignored him as she was already deeply focused on the many designs on her scroll's screen.

Seeing the wary look on Naruto's face, Yang said, "If it makes you feel any better, Ruby doesn't make mistakes when working on this sort of stuff, so no need to look over your shoulder for flying molten metal or anything." She patted her sister's head reassuringly during her explanation, receiving no response whatsoever from the younger female.

"I'll try to take your word for it," Naruto responded.

"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any," Qrow stated, standing up from the tree stump and stretching his limbs. "Pack up the machine, Ruby. We'll head to Signal as soon as you're done."

"Yes!" Ruby excitedly shouted, seemingly becoming aware to the world around her as soon as her desires were met. With a quick boost of her semblance she grabbed the throwing device, disappeared, and instantly reappeared while standing next to her project partner. The only hint of her actually doing the small chore was the petals still making their way to the ground and the loud sound of the shed door being closed within a couple of seconds.

"Come on!" she exclaimed, taking hold of Naruto's hand while trying to drag him towards the path to the main town of Patch.

"Whoa! Hey, we have plenty of time, Ruby!" Naruto yelled as the sudden action nearly made him lose his balance while hastily attaching his sword to his person. He swore Ruby was partly using her unique speed to try and force him along.

Though, now that he thought about it, she'd have to have some sort of decent strength to her to properly wield Crescent Rose.

"No time! The sooner we bring my child out into the world, the better!" Ruby replied with zeal, continuing to pull Naruto and making him stumble after every other step. The height difference only made his balance worse.

" _Your_ child?! This is supposed to be _my_ sword, right?!" Naruto shouted.

"Your child, my child, same thing! Either way, my blood, sweat and tears are going to become a part of her so she's mine too!"

"You're starting to freak me out a little, Ruby!"

As the two teens were no longer seen but could still be heard outside of the clearing, Qrow, Yang and Zwei still hadn't moved from their spots.

They were silent for a moment until Yang barely heard her uncle let out a couple of small chuckles as he tapped the screen of his scroll that must've been brought out during Naruto and Ruby's exchange.

"What's so funny?" Yang asked with Zwei sounding out a single bark, seemingly curious as well.

"Just letting Tai know we'll be gone for a few hours," the man replied.

"Okay?" Yang didn't know what was so great about that, that is, until Qrow presented the text message to her face.

"Oh… that's evil." Her words didn't reach her face since she had a mischievous smile plastered on it. "But wouldn't he get what you mean considering it's Ruby you're talking about?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't hurt to try." After sending the message they were silent again for a few seconds.

Not seeing the point of staying any longer, Yang started heading towards her precious source of transportation. "Zwei and I will be taking Bumblebee, so we'll meet you ther-"

" _THEY'RE_ _WHAT_?!" a voice echoed from within the house and rang throughout the area, scaring off a few birds in the surrounding trees.

Blinking in surprise and recognizing the voice of her father, Yang's satisfied smirk returned as she turned to Qrow who seemed a little happy with himself as well.

"I think it worked. Hopefully he understands by the time we all come back," Yang said until she paused in thought. "Actually, it'd be funnier if he doesn't, though Naruto would have to watch himself."

"The brat can handle it. Or not. Who cares," Qrow nonchalantly responded with an indifferent shrug.

Right before locking his scroll's screen, Qrow sent one last glance at the message he sent to the unfortunate father.

 _'Naruto and Ruby are going to get started on making their kid. Will try to be back for dinner.'_

And who said he was a bad influence?

* * *

"And there's the cafeteria, the main conference room, then some random-teacher-I-don't-know's classroom, Qrow's classroom with dad's a couple of doors down- ooh, ooh, and the janitor's closet!"

Naruto wasn't sure how to react as Ruby forcibly dragged him throughout the various sections and halls that belonged to Signal Academy. He could've been impressed with how she was able to retain such energy and speak so much without taking a breath throughout their trip and the sudden tour, or maybe even a little scared due to her just busting through the front doors like she owned the place, possibly leading to them getting slapped with some trespassing charges or something.

He wasn't exactly the best person to be thinking this, but in this case they weren't sneaking around.

Even with his thoughts being jumbled around at the moment, he couldn't help but contract some of her uncontained joy. Sure, to an outside perspective she probably seemed too eccentric, but he was progressively getting used to seeing this side of her. From what Yang had mentioned of Ruby's general personality, he figured that the younger teen was pretty comfortable having him around as a friend.

Or she was just that excited about helping upgrade his weapon. Either way, seeing Ruby this happy was an amusing sight, something Yang constantly teased her about in the past week.

After naming off some more random parts of the esteemed combat school and passing a few curious staff members, Ruby led Naruto across an open courtyard and to the front of one last building. It wasn't overly big or small with its stone stature, simply being sizable for its use; that being weapon making and repairing if the random parts and various materials hanging around the entrance were anything to go by.

"Welcome to the best part of the school!" Ruby introduced as they walked through one of the large wooden doors that led to property's forge.

"Whoa," Naruto muttered as he took it all in. All kinds of weapon models hung on the walls for reference, their polished bodies looking as if untouched and have never seen combat, the latter of which would be right. Besides spotting a few unique and mysterious designs, the blond was easily able to identify simpler ones such as basic swords, spears, pistols, rifles and others with the list going on. Seeing them all made him giddy on the spot, and if he was feeling like a kid in a candy store at the moment then he could only imagine the euphoria Ruby was taking in. One small glance to his side confirmed his thoughts as her eyes sparkled with joy as if she was reuniting with cherished loved ones she hadn't seen in years.

His gaze wavered to the rest of the room with only a few lingering glimpses that simply took in the general information. Tools were spread about, metallic ingots and other materials were neatly organized around each other, and a myriad of what he assumed were essentials were in their intended places. The only other thing that caught his eye was the forge itself as it lay dormant at the moment, just waiting to be lit anew and grace the world with its creations.

"Well, hello there, little lady and friend! The school's obviously not in session but I'm not a regular presence here either so ogle away!" a boisterous voice with a friendly laugh following after exclaimed.

Turning their heads in sync, Naruto and Ruby saw a man emerge from another doorway at the other side of the room. Red and white were the main colors of his rather sturdy-looking clothing besides the dark pants, though with the addition of the smithing apron and thick brown gloves they figured he'd need them. The only parts that weren't protected fully, that being a portion of his arms and his face, revealed a dark skin tone. His thick black hair was maintained with a small ponytail and lead to his scruffy beard and mustache, drawing attention to the two earrings he was adorning on each ear. Above his lively brown eyes were what the two teens found themselves drawn to the most: a pair of curved horns proudly jutting out and showing his faunus heritage.

Crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, the man said, "Anywho, nice to meet you both. Name's Smeithan, though feel free to call me Smei, ol' smithy, that guy with the horns, or anything else that tickles your fancy!" Smeithan let out a smaller chuckle this time as he observed the young adults. "And what do you two call yourselves?" he asked with a smile.

Blinking away the abrupt yet very welcoming introduction from the man, Ruby spoke first after clearing her throat with a brief cough.

"I'm Ruby Rose. Hiya, Smei," she greeted with a grin and a brief wave.

"Naruto Uzumaki, horn guy," the blond said with his foxy smile.

Smeithan laughed again. "Ruby and Naruto, hm? One fitting the color scheme and the other being more traditional. I like that. Rolls off the tongue nicely." He pushed himself from the wall and started making his way to them. "So what brings you both to this little part of the world?"

With renewed vigor, Ruby excitedly grabbed Naruto's sleeve with one hand while pointing to the visible sword handle with the other. "We're doing an upgrade to get him ready for the combat tests!"

The faunus's eyes gleamed with interest as he placed his hands on his hips and leaned in. "Ah, so you're a potential huntsman? What about you, little missy? I'm guessing that piece of red metal on your back means something along the lines of being a huntress?"

Both nodded, though Ruby's head was a few times more rapid going up and down.

"Excellent!" Smeithan clapped. "It's always refreshing to see ones so young dedicate themselves towards the protection of others. Just remember how much weight being a hunter carries. I should know, seeing as my village has had to request a fair share of them to deal with all sorts of pesky Grimm prowling about."

"Where are you from?" Ruby asked. The man was obviously a blacksmith, but definitely wasn't the official one hired by the school as far as she knew.

"Oh, just a little village called Erika. Our community may not be the most extravagant or even have the security of Mistral on instant call, but it's something special." Smeithan crossed his arms again and felt a fond grin grow on his face. "I may be a bit a biased, but it's home."

Naruto's eyebrows rose. "All the way from a small village in Anima? What're you doing here?"

Walking forward a little and brushing a hand along the top of an anvil, he said, "Oh, just felt like some traveling would do me some good. It's been years since I've left home and I wanted to revisit some sights and old friends. I wanted to check out the forge here for fun once I found out about it and the school was kind enough to let me, but the main reason for me being specifically in Patch at all is because I got a relative living downtown. It's a little hard to stay in contact with some people when the signal from the CCT (Cross Continental Transmit System) tower is pretty poor in my village." Smeithan crossed his arms again as he leaned against a shelf of tools. "Everyone back home should be fine without my magic touch for the time being. This is simultaneously a small vacation for me and a test for my apprentice. If the shop is still in one piece and injuries are at a minimum I'd call it a success!" His rough laugh sounded once again and the duo were starting to see his friendly attitude was the main quirk of the man's personality.

Naruto and Ruby saw that after his laughter died down, the blacksmith's eyes suddenly lit up and focused on something behind them. "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes, you old crow! I remember you saying you taught here but I didn't think we'd actually manage to bump into each other with you always being busy and all!"

"Who do you think put in a good word for you to sniff around our personal forge?" Qrow replied as he walked in from outside with Yang and Zwei following him.

"I thought it was just some good ol' Patch hospitality, but hey, I'll take it!" the faunus answered back joyfully before moving to firmly shake the huntsman's hand.

With her hands behind her head in an easygoing manner, Yang asked, "How do you two know each other?"

The faunus answered. "Oh, this troublemaker has passed through my village a few times for whatever jobs he had at the time. He usually hung around the bar at the inn in his downtime, and we actually had a little contest among men." He let out a hearty laugh and roughly patted Qrow's shoulder a couple of times. "He drank me into the ground!"

"A drunk outdoing someone in drinking. Surprise, surprise," Naruto sarcastically muttered.

Qrow ignored the verbal jab. "Has the heat died down yet?" he asked the Anima native.

Smeithan quirked a brow in thought. "I'd say so, but it would be better not to hang around the bar too long if you find yourself in my village again." He shook his head in playful disappointment and held a smirk on his lips. "I told you not to get too comfy with the owner's daughter. The righteous fury from her father to get to you nearly burned his own business down."

"Ew, uncle Qrow!" Ruby faux gagged.

The man shooed her off. "It'll make more sense when you're older, kiddo."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!" she replied while stomping once on the ground with authority.

Yang stood next to her sister and leaned in to whisper in her ear. Cupping her hand to project her voice further, she said, "You'll understand when you're- ow! Did you just bite me?!" Yang exclaimed as she jumped back while tenderly holding her now throbbing pinky finger.

Seeing the blonde's eyes suddenly take on a red tint, Ruby immediately felt regret growing in her gut before she moved to quickly hide behind Naruto.

"Don't use me as a shield!" Naruto stated as he looked at the top of Ruby's head over his shoulder.

"But your aura practically makes you one!" the short girl retorted.

"Well?!" Yang asked as she started moving towards the two menacingly.

Being the first to take action against the oncoming threat that was her own flesh and blood, Ruby smoothly took Naruto's sword out of its sheath and poked her head out from the side of his shoulder. Awkwardly standing behind her personal meat shield, the young woman gripped the blade with both hands and dramatically pointed it at Yang in a thrusting motion.

"Back!" she shouted, trying to seem as threatening as possible.

Breaking from his amused viewing of the small spectacle and now eying the drawn weapon, Smeithan said, "So this is what you're gonna work with? Hm, plenty of possibilities there."

Ruby paused when the man spoke, giving Naruto the opportunity to quickly place Ruby's hood over her head to cover her face before taking his sword back from her clutches.

Seeing her sister now temporarily blind, Yang swooped in to tackle Ruby but was stopped just like the night prior at Junior's club. Feeling the orange chain lock her arms securely and her aura being calmed down, Yang could only look into blue eyes blankly as she was brought to eye level.

"Is this going to be a regular thing?" she asked in monotone.

"Only when you misbehave," Naruto replied before making the chain disappear abruptly. Yang took a wobbly second to regain her balance as she landed and, like the budding and mature adult she was becoming, decided to stick her tongue out mockingly at the whiskered blond.

Moving her hood back into place and straightening out her hair, Ruby looked at Naruto and asked, "Did you really have to do that?"

"Would you have given her back if I asked nicely?"

Ruby blinked. "Probably not."

"Well, there you go."

"C'mere, son, let me take a look at that sword of yours," Smeithan commented as he approached the young man. With the lively scene out of the way and questions about the chains mentally saved for later, the faunus felt the interests of his livelihood overtake his mind.

Obliging, Naruto handed the blade over and watched as the man critically looked at every nook and cranny there was.

"So, what upgrades were you looking into?" he asked Naruto.

Before the blond could respond, Ruby shoved her scroll nearly into Smeithan's face with glee. "These!" she exclaimed.

Giving the sword back to its owner, the horned male felt his eyes glued to the many notes and designs displayed on the scroll's screen. Looking down at Ruby, he asked, "Who came up with these?"

"Oh, the both of us. We've been talking a lot and tried to brainstorm when we could, and I jotted down whatever seemed to fit."

"And the detailed blueprints?"

Ruby proudly stood straight, raised her nose in the air and placed her hands on her hips. "That would be me, Smei. Besides the usual stuff taught here, I took any extra lessons I could having to do with weapon designing and crafting. I even made my own weapon almost all by myself and help out the blacksmith whenever the chance comes up."

Smeithan grinned at the dedication she conveyed. "Ha! Not bad at all, little lady." Taking another moment to keenly gaze at a couple of designs regarding an added pommel along with firearm capabilities, he said, "Say, I'm not exactly in a complete rush to get back home, so would you two mind if I offer some assistance?"

"Really?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Yeah, what you have in mind from what I can tell isn't too outlandish or simple, so making it won't take that long. While I usually only work on melee weapons and armor for the most part, that doesn't mean I can't fix up a decent gun. Besides, I'd say having an extra and experienced hand will do you some good. I might even teach Ruby here a thing or two."

Ruby sucked in an eager breath and turned to Naruto with shining eyes. Naruto knew the instant he saw that adorable look he was going to cave, though it wasn't like he was going to outright refuse Smeithan's offer anyway. If Qrow knew the man and wasn't looking to suggest otherwise, his help could prove to be a boon in the future.

"Sure, why not?" Naruto said.

"That's the spirit!" The faunus exclaimed with mirth. Offering his hand, he said, "You better make your mark out there in the big bad world with this. I don't want to have my reputation tainted with helping make something for a mediocre huntsman."

Hearing the lightheartedness in his statement, Naruto merely smirked challengingly and fiercely grasped the man's hand. "You don't have to worry about that."

Hearing some rustling off to the side, the entire group saw Ruby walk back from a cabinet she snuck off to at some point in the conversation. As she joined back up with them they saw that on her head was a black welder's mask. With a small tilt of her head, the mask fell down to cover her face, revealing her patented rose symbol in silver on the side.

"Let's do this," she said.

* * *

And thus the long week began. While Naruto had been waiting for this event for a long time, the first day was only used for further planning.

Even so, Ruby continued to wear the welder's mask as some sort of inspirational tool, no matter how unconventional it looked in the talkative hours that followed. The only real excitement was when the group returned back to the family home and came upon a rather irate Taiyang.

Naruto was confused when the man set his sights squarely on him at first, but only became more confused when he started demanding some explanation from Qrow as he tensely pointed to some message on his scroll's screen. From what the Uzumaki could make out, Qrow only kept trying to annoy the father by ignoring his questions and walking right past him. The situation became weirder when Yang laughed a little to herself and offered no explanation. Naruto and Ruby could only shrug it off since they had no idea what was going on and let it go. No more serious attention was given towards Naruto by Taiyang as the man kept bickering with Qrow about completely different things.

There was even a point during dinner where Taiyang nearly blew a gasket when Qrow commented about the father's noodles being overcooked. None of the teens really made much sense of the argument that followed, but it ended with Qrow saying something about licking a blender and therefore owning it… then they called it a night with Naruto going home.

It was pretty weird seeing the seasoned huntsmen act childish, but to Naruto it was better than being serious all the time. After putting some thought into it, Naruto figured that the sisters had to get their more spirited side from _somewhere_.

The second day onward was all about the hands-on activity. Hours were spent each day well enough into the evening as Smeithan and Ruby slaved away. Though at the end of each day the pair's energy wore thin, they each left the forge with satisfaction and excitement building up for the next day of work.

That isn't to say Naruto wasn't just as excited. As he watched and assisted them when he could to shape his sweetheart into something grand, the giddiness inside him continued to build up. Along for the ride as well was Yang as she helped with a fair amount of the manual labor and even added some input every now and then, more specifically she was trying to involve a shotgun somehow into the design.

Qrow was only involved in the mornings since he didn't let Naruto off his normal training. He just condensed it some so that the rest of the group could head to Signal in the afternoon to continue their work. No one exactly knew what the Branwen did once he left to his own devices, but they were too distracted to really pay him any mind.

"Finally!" Naruto enthusiastically proclaimed to himself as he jumped from his bed to anxiously get ready for his weapon's unveiling. It had been a hell of a long week in his opinion, and he just couldn't contain the pure emotion he felt. Hell, he nearly tripped over himself more than once as he tried to put on his clothes too quickly. He had no idea how he was able to sleep at all given his eagerness, yet he was fully able to take advantage of the day off given by Qrow. The man said he had something to take care of that would keep him busy well through the afternoon and figured that he'd be fine being looked after by the sisters. Speaking of, Ruby had forced Naruto to stay in Vale in his gifted free time, or at least away from Signal, so she and the faunus could make the finishing touches alone just so it would be more enjoyable for him as a sort of surprise. Begrudgingly he accepted, figuring it would be more fun that way and also partly because Ruby used those damn silver eyes of hers like a begging puppy as she asked him to do so.

After putting on his shoes while hopping out his door, Naruto bounded down the stairs and met the smell of Ayame's breakfast.

"I don't think slowing down will kill you," the brunette commented as she saw the blond jump over the last few steps before hastily sitting on his reserved stool next to the main counter.

"Can't help it," he replied back as he keenly eyed the bacon being placed onto his plate to complete the meal.

Ayame rolled her eyes as Naruto started digging in at a rapid and honestly disturbing pace as soon as she set the plate down. After the grotesque sight ended with him slamming down an empty glass formerly filled with orange juice, he exhaled sharply before wiping his face off of any rogue pieces of food.

Once he was done he noticed that for the first time Teuchi was kneeling on the other side of the front counter. The only hint of what he was doing was the occasional clanking sounds of metal.

"What're you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Getting ready to install a new addition to our menu," the owner responded. A few more sounds of his work later and he stood up with an accomplished smile as he looked at another money maker.

Standing up and moving a few seats down from his, Naruto peeked over the counter and saw some sort of metal bin fresh out of a secure package. Looking around it he saw a few more boxes with a couple being around the size of a stove.

Pointing to the bin, Naruto asked, "And what's that gonna be used for?"

"Chocolate for starters. The others will be flavors like mint chip, strawberry, vanilla, neapoli-"

"We have ice cream now?" the blond intriguingly interrupted.

Ignoring the abruptness, the elder Ichiraku proudly smiled. "Yep, once I get finished remodeling this spot and installing the whole thing, Ichiraku Ramen will have its own ice cream counter!"

"Why?" Naruto questioned.

"Because his arch-nemesis doesn't sell any as far as he knows," Ayame answered in reference to the shopkeep with a dull voice as she walked by with Naruto's dirty dishes.

Naruto sighed. "Of course…" Deciding not to comment on Teuchi's now hardened expression as he seemed to dwell on his own thoughts, the male said, "Well, I guess having ice cream could actually be pretty nice. Can't hurt, I guess."

"That'll show him…" Teuchi whispered to himself as he went back to unpacking some more parts.

Shaking his head at his father-figure, Naruto looked at Ayame as she walked back and asked, "You guys going to be okay today?"

"Yeah, we're even closing the store for the day to get this thing put together. Tukson and a couple of others in the neighborhood are going to come over and help so you'll be fine. Just don't be too late coming back."

Glancing at the clock, Naruto made sure he had what he needed on his person before turning to leave the building. "Alright then, see ya!"

* * *

"Almost there," Naruto breathily said to himself as he came upon Signal to meet the others. Walking through the appropriate areas from days of practice Naruto slammed the forge's door open to see Ruby, Yang and Smeithan waiting.

Upon seeing him, Ruby's face lit up and she started to bounce in place. "Are you ready for the first moment of the rest of your life?!" she dramatically shouted.

Too excited to form words, Naruto only nodded rapidly and moved forward to join them. Once he got close they parted to reveal a table covered with a dark cloth that had a couple of noticeable bumps under it.

Knowing full well what was hidden, Naruto stood in front of it and reached forward while Yang said, "You're gonna love this, whiskers."

Not wanting his anxiety to grow even more, the blond ripped off the covering as quick as he could to reveal what his baby had become.

With mouth agape, he took her entirety into his vision. Black made almost all of it with the unsheathed blade still holding a silver edge like before, but unlike prior, the main body was lengthened to become more of a machete-sword hybrid. A smooth yet barely noticeable arc connected the very simple black guard—that being a small slanted stub adjacent to the sharpened edge—all the way to the deadly tanto-styled point. On the dull side of the blade's body there was a slight drop off right before the tip, giving it a sort of midway arrowhead look. The grip remained a solid black but the handguard that was there before was replaced with knuckledusters of the same color, still giving Naruto the previous protection while upping his punching power. Lastly was an added pommel that was circular in shape with the surface on the sides being fashioned to be grasped better. Remembering one of the main additions to the blade, Naruto grabbed it and gave it a little twist. A small click later and the rest of the hidden cylinder popped outward from within the grip, revealing a hollow tube that had a specifically shaped opening on the side.

"Here," Smeithan said as he tossed a canister to the blond. After he saw Naruto catch it he said, "You know what to do. Just try to take it easy at first. We don't exactly know how certain amounts of your aura will affect it."

Not needing to told twice, Naruto quickly inserted the object into the pommel and pushed it back into the grip, barely catching a glimpse of the white substance inside the canister. A small application of aura into his hand was all that was needed for the blade's metal to take on a white glow that hummed as soon as it was given life.

Naruto couldn't stop himself from chuckling in excited joy as he stared at the spectacle with a huge grin.

"Think fast!" Yang exclaimed as she tossed a thick wooden board at him.

Naruto merely turned and held the sword out to block it with and kept it still. The result was the board splitting in two the instant it came into contact with the glowing blade, each half clambering onto the floor.

"Well, I guess we can call that a success, not that were was any doubt," the blacksmith stated. "Remember to be careful, Naruto. While the wind dust sharpens that sword to a considerable degree, it mostly relies on how much aura you apply. You have to give it the right amount and keep it stable. I'm not sure what would happen if you dipped into that large reserve of energy you have, but you'll have to experiment with that later within safer means." The man then smirked as he proudly patted Ruby's shoulder. "You'll do well to put that to good use. Little Rose and I made sure it would give you an advantage over anything with stronger defensive capabilities. Just always keep track of how much dust is used with your aura, otherwise you might lose that edge when you really need it. More aura equals greater power but quicker exhaustion of the dust inside. Simple stuff, really."

"But there's still one last part," Ruby eagerly and not-so-subtly hinted.

Immediately cutting off his aura and turning back around, the blond saw the new scabbard for his weapon. Instead of the simple leather, it was now completely new and made of the same dark metal the blade was. At first glance, he saw it was a tad bit bulky in some parts, but he understood what the extra material was going to be used for. Picking it up with one hand and minding the strap that would allow him to carry it on his back, Naruto pushed the sword into its new home and relished the smooth sound that came with it.

With the blade all the way in Naruto only had to make a simple adjustment before it and the scabbard began to change shape. Similar to Crescent Rose, there were a few distinct mechanical sounds as the appropriate parts moved this way and that before they stopped entirely after only a few seconds.

Now tenderly held within Naruto's grip was a black rifle, specifically a battle rifle. A quick glance revealed most of the main features like the safety switch, the currently empty space where the magazine went, the top, bottom and side rails, pistol grip, and the stock and barrel. The design was like how they drew up as not being something too small and not overly bulky like the rifles in use by the android knights and human soldiers of Atlas. It admittedly did have a bit of military influence but he pretty much blamed his fascination with the aforementioned Atlesian forces as a kid. While it wasn't overly flashy like some of the weaponry he'd seen used in the Vytal festival, he figured that all the unique style he would ever need would be when he combined his semblance with its sword mode. Besides, Ruby did mention they could one day spruce it up a little and figure out other additions if they were struck with some inspiration. Getting the full weapon made for him to get used to it just happened to be needed first and as soon as possible.

Finding the weight of it comfortable he placed the adjustable stock to his shoulder and aimed down the, at the moment, simple iron sight. With index finger pointed outward and against the trigger guard, he swayed his aim between some tools at the far end of the room. Satisfied with the feel of it all, he relaxed and pointed the sixteen-inch barrel towards the ground as he turned to the others with a manic smirk.

"Oh yeah, been there," Yang said in amusement as she tapped one of the resting halves of Ember Celica on her wrist.

Snickering to himself, Naruto returned the weapon back to a sword and sheath.

An idea popping into her head, Ruby quickly blasted through the exit without notice, confusing everyone. After a few moments, she came back while dragging someone behind her. Yang recognized the middle-aged man as one of the janitors from the sight of his dirty work clothes and the academy logo plastered on his breast pocket. Not letting the average-looking and brown-haired male get introduced or speak at all, Ruby forcibly made him hold her scroll before guiding Smeithan and Yang over next to Naruto in the middle of the room.

With the group standing in the order of Yang, Naruto, Ruby and Smeithan from left to right, Ruby gave the janitor an expecting look before saying, "Capture the moment please!"

Blinking at her statement, the man shrugged and held the scroll in front of his face in its camera mode.

This made the group automatically adjust themselves to proper positions as they all held smiles and looked straight at the scroll. After taking the picture, the moment was displayed on the screen.

Yang held her usual smirk while having her arms crossed and Ruby exuberated every bit of innocent happiness she could as she locked her hands behind her back. The blacksmith had a toothy grin from ear to ear while his gloved hands were firmly planted on his hips. Between the sisters, Naruto foxily smiled and accented his facial marks as he held the unsheathed sword in front of him to complete the group pose.

With the deed done, Ruby walked up and got her scroll back. "Thanks!" she said while handing the man a five lien card and letting him go on his way.

At the same time Naruto was squinting at the area where the metal of the blade met the grip. While holding the sword in front of him for the picture, he noticed a marking he somehow missed. After closely looking he was able to make out an orange swirl embedded in the metal. However, that wasn't all as he managed to make out another image appearing in the same spot just from the slightest movement in his grip. Replacing the swirl was the same symbol that marked the metal of his headband in a darker print. Testing out the apparent lenticular effect, the two symbols seamlessly interchanged between each other.

Seeing the fond smile grow on the young man's face, Yang leaned in and quietly said, "Look at the other side."

Obeying, Naruto flipped the blade over and looked at the same spot. It was a little less prominent in the glare of the room's light, but after squinting he was able to discover a silver rose, making him raise his eyebrows in mild surprise.

Playfully elbowing him, Yang cheekily said, "She did say it was her child too so she wanted to sneak that in there. Hope that isn't a problem." The young woman then stepped back and looked at Naruto smugly with her arms crossed. "Guess you're stuck with us now."

After thinking a moment and looking at Ruby as she sheepishly listened in on the conversation, Naruto only smiled. "I guess so, and I don't mind her mark." Ruby silently exhaled in relief at that. "Without her and the rest of you, this wouldn't have happened. Would've thought you'd follow her example, though," he said while taking a quick glance to the inflamed heart on her clothing.

She waved him off with a few flicks of her wrist. "Nah, I didn't put in nearly enough work compared to Ruby and Smei, and you guys came up with basically everything." A predatory smirk made its way to her lips as she leaned towards him. "If you _really_ want to rep my emblem, I'm sure we can get you a tattoo or something."

"Yeah, no," he replied monotonously.

Yang shrugged. "Spoilsport. We'll figure something out someday."

Naruto moved his attention to the faunus blacksmith who was silently observing from the side. "What about you? You want me to be sponsored by your shop? Maybe wear your name on the back of my jacket?" he asked lightheartedly.

The man shook his head as he chuckled. Patting the blond on the shoulder, he said, "You don't have to worry about anything like that. All the representation a man of my profession needs is the craftsmanship in his work being appreciated. Just make sure to show your new toy off as much as possible to make the most of it and we'll call it even."

"Will do," Naruto replied before shaking the man's hand. "And thanks for helping out when you didn't have to. Really appreciate it."

"Ha! Don't sweat it. Qrow paid for the materials and even my ticket out of here because he owed me for an emergency fix-up awhile back, so doing what I love to create another work of art was an easy trade-off!" Smeithan did a once over the three teens before letting out a long sigh. "Well, it's about time I take off now, kids. I stayed longer than I planned but this made my trip plenty more worthwhile."

Along with the grateful nod from Naruto, Yang gave her farewell by bumping their fists together while Ruby immediately went in for a speedy hug.

"Take care of yourselves, alright? I'll try to keep in touch," the blacksmith said as he waved goodbye and left the building.

After returning the sentiment, the trio stood there for a few moments until Naruto asked, "Now what?"

Yang hummed an 'I don't know' until both of their heads turned to some clicking sounds in Ruby's direction. Any questions were quickly answered as they watched her start filling up one of the empty black magazines for Naruto's weapon. After each 7.62x51mm round snuggly fit into their temporary home, the two brightly-haired teens could've sworn that Ruby's gaze became hazier with euphoric delight.

Once the final bullet was inserted, Ruby lifted the magazine to eye level—revealing Naruto's familiar orange swirl where her hand previously was—and let out a quiet and shaky breath as she dreamily whispered, " _Ohhh yeah…_ "

"Okaaay, that aside, I guess I can finally test to see if I'm a good shot," Naruto stated while eying Ruby warily.

"Should be fun," Yang replied. "Let's head back to the house. We have plenty of old targets you can use." Tapping his arm as she started to walk past Naruto towards the door she said, "And don't worry, Ruby's just a little excited. Should only last a few more minutes."

Seeing Yang drag her unresponsive sister through the exit by the heels of her boots, Naruto followed suit while grabbing a duffel bag holding all of his extra magazines and ammo to carry at his side. Feeling the eagerness of finally being able to use his weapon's full capabilities, Naruto took a long look at the holstered blade in his hand as a deadly smirk formed on his face.

"Let's go, Hien."

* * *

 _Bang_

 _Ding_

 _Bang_

 _Ding_

"Not bad," Yang commented while she comfortably sat on the grass. "Though when push comes to shove you're going to have to be used to getting shots off a lot faster."

Firing another shot and hearing the metallic 'ding' from the human-shaped target around 40 meters out in the clearing, Naruto lowered Hien and looked down at the sitting blonde. "I know that. I'm just starting out." He brought the weapon back into position to fire as he took aim. Hearing another successful sound from hitting his mark, Naruto smiled widely. "Don't have to worry about a lack of motivation to practice. This is awesome!"

"I know, right?!" Ruby chimed in near him. With Crescent Rose out for her to look in clear detail at the target with her scope, she then said, "Now, try to make a smiley face. That's how I got used to shooting accurately when I was a beginner, even though dad and uncle Qrow made me fire something with a lot less kick. You seem to be handling the caliber well enough so let's stick to this distance until you improve. When you get it perfected then we can increase the range and get you other sights and maybe even a scope!"

The sniper buddies dream will live on.

"Baby steps, Rubes, at least until he has to go all in at the entry tests pretty soon," Yang stated as she laid herself on her back. With arms behind her head she stared at the clouds and smugly said, "When he makes it through, I'll be sure to show him the ropes at Beacon."

Ruby silently deflated. _Oh yeah, they'll both be gone. Stupid age difference…_

"That confident in yourself, huh?" Naruto asked.

"You bet." She sat up and pointed at him. "And you better have some of that confidence rub off on you. Don't want to be associated with a failure now, would I?"

Seeing the playful smile she wore, Naruto ejected the now empty magazine from Hien as he rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't dream of it."

"Well, that was the last of the ammo we brought for you, so I guess we'll call it a day," Ruby said as she made Crescent Rose retract for traveling.

Yang stood up and stretched an arm above her head. "It might've taken some getting used to, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of shooting pretty quickly. Explaining stuff sometimes goes over your head, but when you get right down to it you pick it up fast."

Naruto turned Hien back into a blade and sheathed it. "Ayame always said I was more of a kinesthetic learner."

"Welcome to the club," Yang congratulated.

"Um, Yang?" Ruby said while looking at her scroll's clock.

"Yeah?"

"We almost forgot the other part of today."

"Forgot wha- oh _yeah_!" Yang snapped her fingers in remembrance. "We'll be able to get back before dark if we go now."

"What's going on?" Naruto questioned.

Yang looked at her little sister and, to Naruto, she seemed to ask her a silent question. After thinking for a moment Ruby nodded before turning to the male.

"Um… I'm gonna visit my mom… wanna come?"

* * *

"Sorry if this was a little sudden," Yang said. With her legs pulled to her chest and chin resting on top of her knees, the blonde turned her gaze from her sister in the distance to Naruto sitting against a tree beside her.

"It's okay," he replied. "Yeah, I didn't know you guys were gonna do this, but I don't mind. I mean, I should be a little flattered that you'd both be comfortable enough to even consider taking me along to something like this so soon."

"Wasn't that hard of a decision." Yang looked back towards her sister. "You've wormed your way into our little family easily enough." At this she paused, and after a few moments of silence she said, "Thanks by the way."

He looked at her curiously from his lazy position. "For what?"

Leaning back against the other part of the tree where he was doing the same, she replied. "Just for being here, I guess. Seeing Ruby as excited and happy as she has been the past couple of weeks has really taken a load off."

"How?"

"Well," she began, "with having gone through Signal, I finally get to head off to Beacon soon, but because of that it means it'll be the first time I'm not going to be completely there for her. I really want to make sure she'll be fine without me and can deal with whatever by herself."

"She'll still have your dad and Qrow when they're not busy. Not like that much trouble could happen around here."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, but there's some sort of assurance when you're there personally as a big sibling, y'know? She could be in the safest place around but there's always that little smidge of worry in the back of your mind." She smiled and turned to him. "But the point I'm trying to get at is… just thanks for being her friend. Having someone new making her this happy instead of just the three of us is reassuring and means I got another person to watch her back when I can't."

Naruto raised his brows a tad at her. This was the first time he'd seen Yang act this sentimental, and she usually only smiled when she was joking around in the short time he'd been hanging around with the family. It'd never been this genuine before and it might've just been because of the environment they were currently in. He supposed she showed some sympathy when she looked at his necklace but this was obviously more personal to her. She was trusting him to help take care of someone she cherished very dearly. "That's some strong belief in me when we haven't known each other that long, and you're acting like I'm the only friend to her outside of your family."

She shrugged his words off. "Yeah, I guess it is, but you seem like you can handle it." She chuckled. "Don't think you'd have the heart to turn her away anyway. And she does have a gang of acquaintances that she gets along with well enough at school but she hasn't been this lively about them in a long time. They mostly hang out during school and not much else."

"But doesn't that mean that the excitement around making Hien and sticking around here will wear off too? And what about me going to Beacon if all goes well? We'll both be away."

"Like I said, you can probably handle it, and with me there to help or make you get your rear in gear you won't need much to worry about."

"Oh… uh… thanks?"

She relaxed and closed her eyes. "No problem. Oh, and…"

"Yeah?" he replied.

Opening a single glowing red eye to glance at him with, she sternly said, "But if you ever hurt her…"

He blinked at the sudden sternness but nonetheless nervously nodded at the silent threat. "Message received…"

"Good." And just like that she was back to being calm and enjoyed the silence with the slightly wary male.

A few moments of sitting and watching Ruby talk to her mother's gravestone at the edge of the cliff they were visiting went by. Eventually, with curiosity getting the better of him, Naruto carefully asked, "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to her?" It didn't take much thought to realize who he was asking about.

Yang breathed out heavily and thought to herself for several seconds. "To put it simply, when we were really little, with Ruby not being old enough to really know what was going on, she went out on a mission and didn't come back. There's not much else to it other than that, besides never actually finding her whereabouts. The day this happened was also the one when I found out she wasn't my biological mother."

"What was her name?"

"Summer Rose," Ruby said from in front of them. Seeing the two jump from her sneaky and sudden appearance, she muttered, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Naruto said back after calming back down. "Hope I didn't get too personal."

"No worries," Ruby said with a smile and gestured to the area, more specifically the resting gravestone. "Kinda comes with the territory here. Nothing to be cautious about."

Yang spoke up. "And I guess just to get this personal stuff out of the way, my mom's name is Raven Branwen."

 _Qrow's sister, maybe? She was never mentioned before. Makes sense with him being their uncle,_ he thought. "What happened to her?" Naruto asked.

Looking a little irritable, Yang blew a loose bang out of her face. "She left right after I was born."

Naruto blinked surprisingly. "She just… left?"

"Yep."

"Wow… uh…"

"I know, you don't need to say anything." She suddenly got a determined glint in her eyes as they stared at him. "That's part of the reason why I'm becoming a huntress. I'm going to get answers from her."

Naruto crossed his arms and met her gaze. "Well, I know absolute jack about all that, but since I'm apparently stuck with you two from what you said before, I'll try to help where I can."

Yang chuckled at his words and Ruby merely smiled gently as she sat in front of them. "I'm sure I can handle myself, but thanks anyway. I appreciate it," the elder sister stated.

"You bet."

"Naruto?" Ruby sounded.

"Yeah?"

"Well, since we're on the topic…"

"My parents?"

The silence from both sisters was enough of an answer.

The blond leaned his head back against the bark and looked at the drooping sun through the foliage above them. "To be completely honest I don't know for sure. Every time I try to remember it's all just a blur." He closed his eyes in concentration and his face quickly scrunched up in annoyance. "It's like trying to remember the details of a dream you just had but it's _always_ out of reach no matter how hard you try. I try not to dwell on it so much at a time because all it really ever ends with is me being more pissed off and frustrated than before."

"You don't remember anything at all?" Ruby asked sadly.

"Well," he started, "I at least remember some little pieces. I remember their faces even without help from the necklace, and some times of us together with them smiling and speaking to me. Whatever memories I've been able to pick up does give me some sense of the emotion I felt in the moment." He smiled bittersweetly. "Even if there aren't a whole lot of memories with them, I know they loved me. One of the few clear memories I have is them tucking me into bed and telling me so."

"So how did you end up with Teuchi and Ayame?" Yang asked.

"Well…" Naruto started, "basically, they found me at the side of a road. The old man and Ayame were traveling through southern Sanus, way outside of the Kingdom of Vale. They were making their way from some town close to the border of Vacuo to make a new life in the main city. I guess Teuchi wanted to make sure Ayame grew up safely within a kingdom and Vacuo would've been a tougher journey."

"Going all the way to Vale isn't that safe either," Ruby said. "People get attacked all the time along the main paths if they aren't careful."

"Teuchi knew that. That's why he was saving money since Ayame was a baby to hire some huntsmen or even mercenaries as escorts along the way. Even then he didn't have enough to cover the whole trip. Instead, he only had help through the most dangerous parts, but that was only if he was lucky enough to contact someone to hire in whatever communities they stopped at."

"Must've been tough," Yang commented.

Naruto chuckled. "You have no idea. The week before I was found they actually got blocked by some bandits in the middle of nowhere."

Even though she looked a little worried at his words, Ruby knew it all turned out well in the end considering she met the family. "What happened?"

"Apparently from what the old man told me, they weren't exactly the friendliest of people but weren't all barbaric like some. Still, he said if Ayame wasn't there, they probably would've just killed him. He'd heard some pretty scary stories about that particular group passing through the area but having a kid got him some sort of pass. He didn't get away totally clean considering they still took away a chunk of the money he was going to use for the rest of the trip. Once they had that, they let them go. The area they found me in was one where they were going to have some hired protection but couldn't because of the money being taken. Thankfully, right before that, he managed to catch a ride with a small merchant convoy heading in the same destination so he and Ayame stuck with them the rest of the way. I guess they and I were lucky that some Grimm and those bandits didn't show up."

"Do you remember them finding you?" Ruby asked.

Naruto smiled. "Yeah. I was five. Not much comes to mind of that day until I was being checked over by Teuchi and a couple of others. He said I was completely out of it mentally and didn't look like I had gotten any rest or food for a while. They had no idea where I came from since we weren't near any known places and didn't hear word of someone looking for me for the rest of the way. Anyway, after feeding me and making sure I wasn't sick or something, a seamstress in the group replaced my ruined clothes before I slept in the back of a wagon." His grin grew even larger as he chuckled. "I was coddled and looked after by Ayame for the rest of the trip. I guess we haven't really been separated since." He leaned his head back down to look at the sisters. "Well, that's pretty much all the noteworthy junk of how I got to Vale. I'm kinda hoping that someday after going through Beacon I'll find myself around there again to figure it all out. Maybe by knowing Qrow it will make it easier since he seems to have some connections." He took in a deep breath and mulled over some thoughts. "They're... most likely not alive but I still want to know what happened."

"What were their names?" Yang questioned.

Blinking in surprise, Naruto paused before smiling and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh yeah," he said. Bringing his hand back down to relax, he looked a little proud and sad at once as he said, "They were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. The headband actually belonged to my father while the necklace was my mother's. I don't know why I had them on me when I was found, but I'm glad I did. They're the last things I have of them." Blinking away some budding moisture from his eyes and taking a steady breath, he continued with, "I barely remember, but there was one time my mom said I was a true Uzumaki whenever I acted up and was just myself; being hyper, pulling pranks and whatnot. I think my dad's personality was way calmer than her so her words stuck. That's kinda why I stuck with going with Uzumaki as my surname."

With his story spoken the three didn't say anything for some time. They all only sat there with Ruby eventually sitting on the other side of Naruto to relax. The only noise around them was the rustling of the wind and the occasional chirp of a bird that nearly put them to sleep. However, after noticing the sun dropping a little too close to the end of the horizon, Yang said, "I think we should get going."

Staring at Summer's gravestone for one last moment, Ruby responded with a quiet, "Yeah."

Then they stood and began to walk on the path back to the house. Once again they were silent for the beginning of the small trek until Ruby spoke up, albeit quiet at first.

"Um, even if how you ended up in the kingdom wasn't exactly under the best circumstances, I'm glad you did."

"Ditto," Yang added from Naruto's other side.

Naruto looked at both sisters as they kept walking, taking notice of how they smiled at him with such sincerity. Though the words and expressions were short, they still meant a lot. Sure, he'd only known them for a couple of weeks, but he had to admit he really enjoyed being around them and the rest of their family.

After a few seconds, Naruto smiled back, put his hands in his pockets and looked ahead with a little more pep in his step. "Yeah, me too."

* * *

Night had taken over Patch as the three teens approached the house. At this time, though, only two of them were still walking as Ruby was being carried on Yang's back, her having gotten drowsy and jumping on her sister's back before falling asleep.

"I'll take her to our room," Yang said as they came up to the front door.

"Alright," Naruto replied. He would've followed Yang into the house but noticed that off to the side Qrow and Taiyang were lounging around the porch, the former seemingly being done with whatever he said he was taking care of. "I'll be inside in a little bit."

Nodding at his words, Yang walked into her home with Ruby while Naruto casually made his way to the side.

Noticing the young man hopping over the small wooden rail to get to where they were standing quicker, Qrow was the first to greet him. "That thing shoot straight?" he questioned with a swig of his flask following right after.

Naruto smirked as he tapped Hien's handle over his shoulder. "Oh hell yeah. There's not much holding me back from catching up to you now."

Qrow scoffed and rolled his eyes as he leaned forward onto the railing overlooking the dark forest barely illuminated by some moonlight.

"Might not want to get too cocky, Naruto. Yang talked a similar game and opened the gates for us to train her into the ground," Tai commented from next to Qrow.

"Did she live?" Naruto replied.

Qrow cracked a grin at the memories of some of the more harsher days of Yang's training. "Mostly."

Naruto waved his words off and took a spot next to the Branwen. "Then I'll be fine. What's being thrown into a few more trees gonna do?"

"You better remember your own words because I guarantee you're gonna eat them pretty soon," Qrow said. He turned around and his back against the wood instead. "So why were you all out this late? Plenty of ammo to burn?"

"Actually, they took me to visit Summer after we got done."

"Huh," Qrow grunted lowly with interest. He didn't think they'd be taking him there that quick.

Tai grew quiet before muttering, "Well, I guess it's that time again." Naruto noticed some sadness quell within the man's eyes, even some within Qrow's, though Tai's was more open about it, no doubt from their past relationship.

Seeing that Naruto didn't know what Taiyang meant, Qrow said, "Ruby usually likes to visit once a month. Sometimes she goes there early because she wants to share something exciting that's gone on in her life. One of us usually goes with her, but she can suddenly take off if she feels like it. Suppose with you hanging around here she had plenty to talk about."

"Yeah, you've certainly brought something fresh around here," the father said. "Gotta help Ruby keep Summer entertained somehow, right?"

Naruto didn't totally know how to react to that. Yeah, there was some suddenness to it all but a part of him couldn't help but be a little touched. "Glad to help," he said after the thought.

"Okay, okay, enough of this sappy crap," Qrow stated bluntly, easily changing the mood around them. "I'm hungry and the food's still waiting inside, but before that we might as well do a quick celebratory toast for the kid."

"You're only finding an excuse to have another drink," Taiyang accused with Naruto silently agreeing.

"Hey, I was going to even without the brat getting a new weapon. I'm just trying to be nice here."

"Uh-huh," Naruto sounded.

"To hell with you both. Anyway," he raised the flask and drawled on scratchily, "to the kiddie gloves coming off so I can beat the crap out of the brat even more." And with that, he took a long drink from the silver container.

"Woohoo," Naruto stated sarcastically with barely any emotion and a lazy fist raised.

Exhaling in satisfaction, Qrow handed the flask to Tai's hesitant hands.

"Do I really need-"

"You're not getting out of it, Tai. Just man up and drink it."

Looking between the flask, Qrow, then to Naruto, the father relented and brought the container to his mouth. He supposed he had to activate his 'cool dad' mode every now and-

"Gack!" the man croaked out as he tossed the flask back to Qrow. The other two watched as the male Xiao Long proceeded to start coughing as his torso was hanging over the railing.

 _I honestly don't know what I was expecting,_ Qrow thought before turning to Naruto. "Had your first drink yet?"

The blond shook his head in a negative. His response earned him having Qrow place the flask in his hands, making him look at the object with wonder.

Looking back towards Taiyang as he began to recover, Qrow said, "Pretty sure you'll do better than-"

"Wha-ack!"

Hearing the new coughs next to him, Qrow didn't even bother to look at the suffering teen as he shook his head in disappointment.

"Amateurs…"

* * *

(Omake - Mother Dearest)

It was a quiet night in the bedroom of Naruto Uzumaki, as it should've been considering it was almost three in the morning.

Peacefully snoring the night away was the room's owner himself as he was comfortably snug under his blanket with his arm hanging over the edge of the mattress. However, the silence would not last forever as Naruto's scroll started ringing on the nightstand next to his bed.

"Nnnngh…" Naruto groaned out in annoyance as his sleep was disturbed. It took a few seconds but he was able to gain enough cognitive ability to lazily reach out to grab the screaming device without opening his eyes. A few misplaced attempts later met success as he instinctively pressed a button on the screen and brought it to his ear.

"Hello...?" he let out groggily.

"Naruto?" a feminine voice whispered.

Scrunching his eyebrows, Naruto said, "Ruby? Why are you calling this late? The sun isn't even out yet…" Seriously, was Ruby waking him up in the wee hours of the day going to be routine?

"Sorry… um… can I talk to Hien?"

"..."

"..."

"What…?"

"Please?"

"Ruby, why-"

"I don't think I can sleep until I can so _please_?"

Naruto was torn between being annoyed and confused but didn't really care for Ruby's reasoning as long as he could go back to sleep. So with that thought, he opened his eyes to a squint and held the scroll out to the resting blade as it was leaning against the small part of the wall in-between the bed and the nightstand.

"There…" Naruto groaned out.

"Thanks," he heard Ruby reply. With it being so dead quiet in the room he was able to hear the response and her words that followed without being put on speaker mode.

"Hey, sweetie! It's mommy!" she whispered with a coo. Yeah, Naruto couldn't make heads or tails of why this was happening, but he was going to wait till the talking stopped as his cue to cut the call and slumber once more, no matter the weirdness of it all.

"Did you two make it back home without any problems? Really? That's good." Naruto heard an almost inaudible giggle. "Yeah, I know, but you shot great yesterday! You're only going to get better from here along with Naruto. Oh? Don't worry, Crescent Rose had the same experience, but look at your big sister now! Anyway, I just wanted to check on you real quick so I'm gonna let you go."

Naruto felt relief enter his mind as he held a finger over the 'end' button.

"Really? Well, then you should tell him to move it right now. Don't want your daddy stepping and slipping on it in the morning and hurting himself, right? Well, I shouldn't take any more of your beauty sleep, so goodnight and sweet dreams!"

Naruto heard Ruby hang up on her end first, causing him to sigh in relief before placing the scroll back where it once was. Snuggling back into his pillow, Naruto was fully prepared to let his mind go but a single thought made him suddenly sit up, now completely wide awake.

Turning to his bedside, he leaned forward and glanced over the edge. What awaited him on the floor was a comic book he was reading before turning in for the night. It seemed he had forgotten about it and if he were to blindly step out of bed the next morning, there would've been a decent chance of him falling on his ass because of it.

"But how did she…?" he muttered to himself. His unspoken question made a heavy chill run down his spine before he agonizingly and slowly turned his head to Hien. Once fully facing the blade, he saw that she was right where she was placed and hadn't moved at all.

"Hien…?" he tested, a little fear evident in his voice.

"Did Ruby actually talk to you...?"

"..."

Naruto didn't get much sleep that night...

* * *

 **AN: Welp, gonna have to move this thing along, so there will most likely be a time skip for the next chapter.**

 **Anywho, thanks for reading! I hope this lived up to the quality I'm trying to set, even if action wasn't the focus for this one. This was mostly just to get some interaction and other important factors out of the way. And just as a small fyi, the firearm aspect of Hien (yes, the name of Asuma's technique because that's what the wind dust ability is based on) is mostly inspired by guns like the FN Scar-H and other battle rifles of the same ammo type. Its power is similar to Pyrrha's rifle (though that wasn't exactly shown off much at all) since that seems based on the M1 Garand which pretty much packs the same kind of punch up to long range and fits what I want Naruto to have.**

 **Also, Smeithan's (yep, that blacksmith from volume 4) name is the Teutonic word that means "Black metal forger". And his village's name Erika was used in the same way other places in Anima were named; that being Japanese floriography. In this case, Erika means "Solitude".**

 **And as it seems to be routine, thanks again to Fan-Of-FictionX01 for lending a hand to get this damn thing made. May your days be filled with satisfactory wealth and only minor disappointment.**

 **Don't have much else to say so please leave your thoughts or questions in a review to satisfy my curiosity and muse. Some stuff that people have shared has actually shaped some certain aspects of the story and I'd really like to see what you guys have to say!**

 **Later!**


	5. Short Goodbyes and New Hellos

**AN: Yeah, I can't believe this took me less than three weeks either.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Short Goodbyes and New Hellos**

"So when's that whole testing thing gonna happen?" Tukson asked as he casually walked alongside Vale's streets.

Traveling next to the muscular man was Naruto, placing his hands in his pockets as he stopped whistling an off-key tune. "In a couple of days. I don't think I have much to worry about. Qrow said if I had gone through Signal and was as trained as I am now, then passing the physical portion shouldn't be a problem."

"And the written portion?"

Naruto's eyes lost their mirth for a moment and gained some annoyance as he looked ahead dully. Sighing in exaggeration, he said, "Not really my strength, but Tai's been cramming as much info as he's been able to into my brain."

Tukson chuckled lightly. "And how's that been going?"

The blond placed his hands behind his head and groaned from the memories of the study sessions. "Pretty sure I've retained enough of it… I think."

Tukson smirked. "Didn't have enough pictures in the books?"

"You're hilarious," Naruto replied monotonously.

The older man patted Naruto on the shoulder. "You tend to pick up a few things from reading a lot."

"Or you're just an ass."

The business owner laughed loudly. "That too, I guess," he said once he calmed down.

They continued to the ramen stand from Tukson's store, Naruto having helped the man organize his backroom for future shipments.

Going through the entrance, the two saw Teuchi and Ayame hard at work as usual.

"You both done?" Ayame called out after placing a bowl of ramen in front of a sitting customer.

"Yep, didn't take as long as we first thought. If there's nothing else going on, I'm gonna rest for a bit then head to Patch. Qrow wants to go over some final things to prepare me for the combat tests," Naruto stated as he headed towards the stairs.

Working on another batch of ramen further into the kitchen, Teuchi shook his head with a knowing grin as he heard Naruto's words. "You mean you're gonna fight until you get hurt or he gets bored."

Naruto stopped at the door and scoffed. "It's not that bad anymore. I'm way better than the start."

Teuchi shrugged as he moved to clean the front counter. "I suppose your stories about Qrow beating the daylights out of you is now averaging to maybe once a week instead of several."

Tukson joined in. "I think I'd chalk that up to that guy taking off on some sudden missions from what Naruto told me."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto began making his way up the steps while saying, "You guys are _sooo_ supportive…"

The three plus a few customers either smiled or chuckled at the exchange as Naruto's steps to the second floor grew quiet.

"So, you guys feel like giving me a free lunch today?" Tukson asked Ayame as he leaned on the counter and gave his widest smile.

"Do you have the _Third Crusade_ for me?" Ayame smoothly retorted with crossed arms.

"..."

"Then you better get your wallet ready."

Tukson sighed and sat on a stool in defeat.

It wasn't his fault the second order for that book failed like the first. _Blame the stupid Grimm that knocked the shipment into a lake…_ he thought with annoyance.

Around an hour later Naruto made his way back down onto the main floor, though this time he had Hien securely placed on his back. Seeing that Tukson was no longer present and probably went to tend to his store, Naruto was about to announce his departure but stopped as he saw someone he recognized sitting in his usual seat.

It honestly would've been harder to not remember the girl as she sat there quietly and happily enjoying an ice cream cone. If the same clothing accompanied by the pink umbrella wasn't enough of a hint, then certainly her tri-colored hair was a dead giveaway. Her unique eyes would've been too if they hadn't been closed due to the euphoria from her frozen treat, her legs joyfully swinging in the air all the while.

"Told you adding ice cream was a good idea," Teuchi said as he walked to stand next to Naruto.

Naruto shrugged. "I guess so, and with it getting warmer than it already is it'll only get better."

The male Ichiraku grunted with satisfaction. "Yeah, we should expect some good profits. Doubt the weather being hot or cold will stop that little lady there."

"Why?"

Nudging his head to the young woman and the ice cream counter in general, he said, "You haven't really been around when she usually comes in, but that girl's stomach is like a black hole when it comes to ice cream."

"Can't be that bad."

"The neapolitan wasn't touched at all when she showed up while you were upstairs."

"And?"

"And now more than half the bin is gone."

"Oh. Damn…"

"Yeah." The girl's appetite for the dessert didn't spook the older man at all. In fact, a small grin grew on his face as he started to walk back to the kitchen. "If she's willing to keep the money flowing for the stuff, then she can sleep in the booths for all I care, which reminds me, I'm probably going to need to order more…"

Naruto watched him get back to serving customers alongside his daughter before he noticed that the mystery girl was now looking at him, her pink and brown eyes showing the same innocent curiosity he had when he first noticed her.

Not really wanting anything to be awkward and knowing he had to walk by her anyway, Naruto made his way to her.

"Yo," he said with a hand up in greeting.

She tilted her head curiously until she decided to show him her grin and gave a little wave back.

He held his hand out. "I'm Naruto."

She returned the gesture in kind and politely nodded.

He waited a few seconds for her to perhaps introduce herself but the words never came. "Um, what's your name?"

She blinked at his question and then started to dig around her pocket for a bit. When she pulled out her scroll she tapped the screen with her only available hand and started typing away on a little note app. Finishing her quick message, she flipped the screen to him, making him lean in to read what she wrote.

' _Neo :)'_

Naruto raised a brow. _Huh, her name is Neo, she's eating neapolitan, and has the clothes, hair, and eye color to match. Must've been destiny or something._

He was also curious about the fact that she didn't or couldn't answer vocally. A little unusual, yes, but he supposed she had her reasons. The blond then cleared his throat. "Nice to meet you, Neo. Didn't think I'd see you around here."

She looked at him questionably until she snapped her fingers in realization. Taking her scroll from the counter she typed again.

' _Outside of Junior's club a couple of months ago?'_

"You remember that?"

She smiled. ' _The whiskers helped.'_

He scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Yeah, that's usually the case. And before you ask, your look isn't really that common either."

Neo shrugged and nodded admittedly. A day never really went by where she didn't get a few lingering glances.

"Well, anyway," Naruto started, "it was nice meeting you, but I have to leave now. I guess I'll be seeing you around here?"

A simple nod and smile was her response.

"Alright then." He turned his head towards the kitchen. "Leaving!"

"Bye!" Ayame's voice echoed from the back. "Be careful!"

"Don't get beat up too much!" Teuchi exclaimed beside her.

"Don't break a hip!" he called back to Teuchi in particular with minor irritation.

With that he started to leave, giving Neo one last wave goodbye which was returned pleasantly.

As she saw Naruto leave, Neo went back to focus on the reason she's been visiting the stand lately. She never really expected the place to sell her favorite treat, but she supposed she should consider herself lucky since the ice cream stand she normally frequented closed down not that long ago. However, as she looked at the cone in her hand she realized she must've absentmindedly eaten the rest of the cold delight during the conversation. Furrowing her brows at the discovery, she quickly tapped the counter a couple of times to get Teuchi's attention.

"Another scoop, miss?"

She held her cone up eagerly.

The stand owner laughed lightly to himself before serving her another helping. Once he saw the girl happily dig back in, he went to see how his other regulars were doing at their seats.

Neo was really glad she could take it easy, at least for now. She knew stuff would start picking up again after Torchwick's string of robberies would be executed, and the man would rather have her at his side for some of the more risky targets.

She took another delectable lick of chocolate and strawberry.

Eh, that'll be something to worry about for future Neo. Ice cream now, swish, swish, stab later.

* * *

Naruto skidded behind a tree as he hastily dodged another blast from one of Qrow's shotgun barrels, the buckshot tearing off more than a few chunks of bark.

Quickly transforming Hien from sword to gun, Naruto swiftly peeked around the tree, looked through the short-range sight that emerged from within the top rail and slid into place, and fired a small onslaught of rapid shots. He'd been hoping to get a jump on Qrow once his need to reload came up, but the man easily lifted the broadsword and blocked all the bullets with the flat of his blade.

"Damn it," Naruto cursed before he left his cover and ran into the clearing they were fighting in. Speedily reaching Qrow's position, Naruto came in with an overhead slash as Hien went back to a sword, the scabbard swinging back into its usual resting spot by use of the strap. Predictably, it was blocked, the impact echoing out with a metallic 'clang', but that wasn't Naruto's whole plan. Right after Qrow was preoccupied with holding his blade in place, two orange and spiked chains emerged from the blond's back and struck forward like two snakes going in for the kill.

Qrow clicked his tongue once he saw the attack and decided to lift and slide his sword up against Naruto's, blocking one of the chains but making him immediately jump back to dodge the other as it narrowly missed and stabbed into the soil.

Naruto jumped back as well, his chains at the ready, and was debating his next move until a familiar whistling sound suddenly started to grow louder.

The teen mentally groaned. _I thought she ran out of those…_

Willing the chains to stab into a tree a safe distance away from the impending threat, Naruto pulled himself out of harm's way as the position he was previously standing at lit up with two explosions. Once stopping his momentum and standing in front of the tree he escaped to, Naruto turned around and watched as Yang emerged from behind a few thick bushes, a gleeful smirk adorning her lips and smoke lingering from both of her gauntlets.

"What happened to 'ran out of shells so I'm gonna watch', dattebayo?!" Naruto shouted across the clearing. For a moment Naruto was pretty relieved when his brightly-haired counterpart made that small announcement earlier if only so his clothes would be less singed from the shots she put more aura into since the action caused the rounds to shoot off like small heat-seeking missiles that ended up with a more explosive impact.

Ayame was kinda used to him coming back as damaged goods from his spars with the family, but he'd rather end his day without a tongue-lashing.

"I _did_ run out!" Yang replied. "But I found some more from a stash in a tree trunk! Got to be more prepared when you fight someone on their home turf!" she exclaimed joyfully, her mischievous smile becoming more prominent.

"Oh, that is such a load of bullsh- ah!" Naruto shouted in fright as a rather large branch seemed to suddenly implode from behind him, making him flinch vaguely from the many splinters that smacked against his exposed skin. Looking back at the destroyed piece of wood for a second made Naruto realize what had just happened. Facing toward the thick foliage directly on the other side of the field, Naruto shouted, "Was that really necessary, Ruby?!"

The adult and two teens waited for a few seconds before, from within her perched hiding place, Ruby distantly exclaimed, "This is a potty mouth free zone!" Her voice echoed despite the low volume that reached their ears.

"And your solution was to shoot me?!"

Once again her reply took a bit. "I shot _near_ you!"

"And what if you messed up and hit me?!"

"I don't miss! And you would've been fine! I've shot you before and your aura helped you take it like a champ!"

"It still hurt, dattebayo!"

"It built character!"

"When is it going to be time for you to build some character?!"

"You don't need to fix what isn't broken!"

Naruto would've continued the shouting match had it not been for his hasty roll to the side as one of Qrow's sonic blasts sped right at him. Getting back to his feet, Naruto had to then block a punch from Yang as she tried to land a clean shot from behind. Right after the block, the young woman managed to kick Hien out of Naruto's hands and stab into the dirt.

"No excessive bickering on the battlefield!" Yang shouted with an excited grin in place as she and Naruto started to trade blows.

"You'd be surprised," Qrow said to himself as he watched the two yellow-haired teens fight it out in hand-to-hand, the two of them noticeably circling around Hien as they did so. For the moment he decided that he'd simply stand back and watch, having made that shot at Naruto because he wanted him to get his mind focused on the training at hand. If it was any other time then he would've most likely seen where the teens were going with their interactions just for the fun of it, but he really wanted Naruto to be as seasoned as possible. They were on the last legs of his so-called 'tutorship' and had to make the most of it.

As Naruto redirected a punch and blocked a following kick to his temple from his rowdy niece, he was able to see that the teen had really grown enough to hold his own. Like always he was able to take some nasty hits and keep going unhindered, but now he could fire back with equal if not much greater ferocity when given the opportunity. It was easily believable to see how he handled himself now considering that the kid took to his and Tai's unarmed teaching's like a fish to water. They figured it was mostly due to how each punch or kick had a considerable focus toward the actual strength behind it, fitting with how the blond had been fighting for years, though that was obviously done with much less refinement until they oversaw his progress.

It was during Naruto's short period of sloppiness at the beginning that Yang enjoyed the most. Whenever Naruto was done with practicing his forms and light sparring with either her father or uncle, she usually goaded him into sparring with her. He wasn't bad, but since fighting with fists was sorta her thing she had a definite upper hand. After the first few fights where she took advantage of every opening—and there were plenty—she had taken to calling him her personal punching bag. That had certainly lit a fire under him and only ignited his work ethic even more. Slowly but surely he improved and lasted much longer in spars where points were given with each solid hit, and even though there were definitely some times where Naruto lost to Yang or the two fully-fledged huntsmen, he took it all with a feral smile to go along with his black eye or busted lip.

The only person he consistently bested was Ruby, but that wasn't much of an accomplishment. The girl was a powerhouse when paired with her precious scythe, but when separated she was comparable to a defenseless bunny. Naruto, having not known of Ruby's lack of hand-to-hand at the start, would've felt much worse when he landed a solid punch into her gut if she hadn't been used to it from Yang. The older sister had apparently been very adamant about upping Ruby's skills in that department but wasn't met with many positive results. It was Yang's current hope that having Naruto thrown into the mix would inspire more motivation for Ruby, but as they had all witnessed over the weeks it was a slow process.

It was also worthy of note in the experienced huntsman's mind that Yang had improved some as well. She was already a good fighter, good enough to easily fit in with the better huntresses of Beacon, but as she saw the work and development Naruto was showcasing within a somewhat short period of time there seemed to be a desire to try and stay ahead of him. It was a pretty reasonable motive, he supposed, considering her fighting style. It would probably be a tad embarrassing if a wet-behind-the-ears huntsman hopeful was able to match her abilities, but that didn't stop her from helping the whiskered male from getting better. Since progress with Ruby wasn't going so well, it wasn't that outlandish of an idea that she was excited about helping someone improve with her specialty, especially since Naruto was such a willing student and sparring partner. He remembered Yang even mentioning that if Naruto was able to catch up due to all of their help, then that'd be motivation for her to widen the gap between them and make her even more prepared for Beacon and beyond as a whole.

While Yang had the joy of beating/helping teach Naruto with his hand-to-hand during his time in Patch, Ruby had graciously accepted the role of fine-tuning his shooting ability. Like with every other kind of training Naruto had partaken in, he was more than willing to do so with everything he had. It helped that since taking his first shot with Hien he considered the activity to be a new favorite hobby. His eagerness coupled with Ruby's help had upped his accuracy, range, and rate of fire among other basic things. A month back they had even done some upgrades when Ruby felt it was the right time. They weren't drastic upgrades, but they were certainly an aid in the blond's firearm capabilities. The first upgrade had been giving the barrel the function of being lengthened or retracted depending on the distance of the target. It was relatively simple given that it had to retract in the first place for all the parts to adjust when turning back into a sword, but it had been a welcomed addition. The second and only other improvement had been adding a variety of sights within the gun just underneath the surface of the top rail to be called upon when their need was suitable. The two teens had a couple of ideas to include other offensive accessories to maybe join the sights within the fine assortment of metal but had decided to hold off for the moment.

Qrow's pondering had been broken as he saw that Naruto managed to break off the duel of fists for just enough time to grab Hien from the ground and try to slice Yang's midsection. The female quickly jumped back as the blade sang a single deadly note as it sliced through the air. They then stared each other down with competitive smiles and lightly labored breaths, more so for his niece since her stamina had never been a match for Naruto's. There were even a few scuffs on their clothing and skin from the bouts earlier in the past half hour to the present one but they paid them no mind.

The Branwen then heard some steps before Ruby took her spot next to him.

"Get bored of watching, kiddo?" Qrow asked as he looked down at her.

The Rose frustratingly blew a lock of hair that was in front of her eye. "Couldn't get any shot in without having a chance of hitting Yang. Anyway, are we almost done? I think he's ready for the tests by now."

"Yeah, I guess he is," he replied with a hint of a smirk as he saw Yang just barely dodge a couple of the banes in her life, that being Naruto's chains. The damn things always seemed to show up when she didn't want them to and prevented her from doing something fun. It didn't help that she was basically defenseless when they wrapped around her and suppressed her aura. They still didn't know exactly how they were able to do that, but it definitely was useful. They joked that if Naruto's huntsman career didn't work out then he could always go into bounty hunting.

"Hate those things…" Yang muttered to herself as she once again jumped to prevent herself from being captured and ending the fight right then and there. Feeling that putting some distance between them would suit her current position, she punched forward and not only made Naruto delay his next attack, but also propelled herself a good amount of distance backward.

Skidding to a stop she ejected the used shells from her gauntlets and pulled out two new belts before she tossed them into the air. Expertly allowing them to fall into the now open slots within the yellow metal, the gauntlets reloaded and transformed back to their combat state. Once the shells were fully cocked and ready to go Yang smirked and pulled her fist back for a punch.

 _Shit, she's doing that again, isn't she?_ Naruto thought with a mental sigh.

Without stopping until all the shells were used, Yang kept throwing left and right punches, launching a constant barrage of missile-like balls of fire that whistled their battle cry as they flew through the air and toward the unfortunate blond.

In response, Naruto sent his chains to intercept the first two shots. When the opposing forces met, two explosions followed, knocking off Naruto's control of the chains and creating a cloud of smoke between the two teens. Cancelling the flow of aura, the orange chains disintegrated and disappeared with flashes of sparks of the same color in their wake. Seeing the rest of Yang's artillery speedily launch through the smoke made Naruto knock two more out of the air with a desperate summoning and disintegration of his chains again, but was left to deal with the rest.

When the next several closest threats closed in Naruto stared them down before tightening his grip on Hien and, after mentally calculating his timing, executed vertical slashes on each of them. The result was the rounds being cleanly cut in half and each new piece continuing their journey past Naruto and into the nearest trees at the edge of the clearing.

If Naruto was given time, he would've admired the smooth action he had just accomplished. He had just gotten that down pat after being attacked by Yang in the same manner in previous spars where he was much less successful. Thankfully, now he was confident to at least lessen the damage he took by a considerable degree with his new skill since the beginning ended with much more fiery and painful results...

He still missed that pair of pants.

Anyway, now facing the rest of the barrage that curved through the air from multiple points in his line of sight, Naruto cut a few more before he was forced to roll out of the way from a few that were all gonna reach his position at the same time. This lead to a much more dangerous game of dodgeball as Naruto showcased some fancy footwork that either led to Yang's shots making an explosive dent in the soil where he was standing prior or sailing into the treeline like the first few rounds that were cut.

After managing to not get hit directly once due to one part skill and one part desperation, Naruto got back to his feet and saw Yang calmly walk through the dying cloud of smoke with the same fiery demeanor plastered on her visage.

Given her official role as a distant threat to keep Naruto on his toes along with seeing said blond not that close to her sister, Ruby lifted Crescent Rose to aim at him. Before she could fully look through her scope Qrow placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. When she curiously looked up at her uncle she saw that he seemed to be looking at another part of the forest as if he was expecting something. She then saw that a look of realization slightly dawn within his eyes before he turned back to the fight.

"Pop quiz, brat!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Naruto responded with a near shout, some annoyance evident in his tone. He had just been ready to return Yang's firepower with his own before the man interrupted them. Looking back at Yang, he saw her shrug at his inquisitive look after relaxing her stance.

Their silent curiosity was answered when a few trees off to the side started to shake followed by a low guttural groan. When they all looked to the source they witnessed an ursa slowly stomp its way through the foliage, looking as threatening as the rest of its kind always did with its massive frame, large jaw, and deadly claws.

"It's all yours, kid! Yang, Ruby and I won't interfere unless it's necessary." With that, Qrow signaled Yang to join him and Ruby which was begrudgingly obeyed with her sending him a small glare. She hadn't fought any Grimm for a while and had shortly looked forward to the instant opportunity that just walked right up to them.

As he approached the increasingly growling Grimm, Naruto scoffed. _Unless it's necessary? This isn't my first ursa, old man._

Wanting to get the fight over with, Naruto turned Hien back into a rifle and fired some shots into the creature's torso. The ursa's only reaction was to stand tall on its legs before roaring at him and seemingly shaking the area with the power behind it. Right after that, it went back to standing on four limbs and proceeded to charge at the blond with near surprising speed.

Matching the monster's pace, Naruto took out one of his wind dust capsules to load into his blade's pommel and click back into place, making the blade glow with his aura and hum to life. Shortly after the two forces finally met at a close enough range the ursa took a heavy swipe at the teen. Quickly jumping up at the right moment, Naruto was able to kick off the deadly paw with a burst of aura and gained a good amount of altitude above his opponent. As soon as the blond reached the point of slowing his ascent, he sent his chains down with as much striking speed he could muster.

Each one hit their mark as they each pierced a paw straight through and into the dirt. The Grimm roared in pain and became too distracted with trying to get the objects out of its limbs to focus on the descending Uzumaki. Before the bear-like creature knew what happened Naruto struck down with Hien's hum and glow growing even more from the aura being channeled through it. Using the chains to pull himself down even faster left the Grimm with absolutely no chance of retaliation and all watching witnessed the blade slice through its neck like a hot knife through butter.

Immediately after Naruto's hard landing that led him to his knee from the force of the impact, the ursa's body and dismembered head quickly evaporated in dark wisps until there was nothing left. Letting out a quick breath, Naruto smirked in satisfaction as he let the chains disappear. Taking out pocketing the capsule that still had a good amount of dust within and sheathing Hien smoothly, he began to make his way to the awaiting family.

"That good enough?" he smugly asked.

Qrow rolled his eyes. "I think I'm obligated to say yes since I'm the main one to have been teaching you combat, but don't get cocky. I'm sure the experience would be different if there was more of them and you didn't have any dust on hand. Without that extra sharpness, the fight would've required more effort and time, and a single second can make the difference between living to see another day or taking a long dirt nap."

Naruto crossed his arms and rolled his eyes like the man had done. "Yeah, yeah. Still, you have to admit that- ack, what the hell?!"

"He never said we were done!" Yang shouted after she jumped onto Naruto's back and got him into a headlock while her legs crossed over his stomach, her having snuck around him as he was talking.

One part of him was annoyed at the sneak attack, another kinda respected the tenacity, while another more simple and biological part of him enjoyed the bit of pressure the young woman's 'twins' were causing against his back on each side of Hien's scabbard. However, all were trumped by his sudden need of air.

"Let'em go, Yang. He needs to stay alive to take the tests, and I don't want my precious time wasted by him kicking the bucket after all this effort," Qrow said without a shred of care or worry.

"Only if he gives!" Yang deviously proclaimed as her head pressed against the side of his from tightening her grip.

"N-never!" Naruto raspily let out.

Putting his weapon securely onto his lower back to carry, Qrow turned and started walking back to a path in the forest. "Whatever, do what you want. Three on one spar is over and the brat passed well enough to not embarrass us at the exams. I'm going to town for a while so don't wait up," he finished with a wave over his shoulder.

Ruby silently watched her uncle walk away before turning back to the hyperactive pair as they were now continuing their struggle with their backs on the ground, more so Yang's from their position.

"Yang, can you please let go before you kill our friend?" she asked innocently.

"Depends. You going to cave, whiskers?" Yang asked her captive.

"Y-you might-gack! You m-might as well just end it!"

"Wrong answer." And with that, Yang tightened her hold even more, causing Naruto's face to start taking on an increasingly blue hue.

"You… you don't have the guts… coward…!" Naruto barely rasped out barely above a whisper with his last bit of breath.

The youngest of the three scoffed at the pair as she put a compact Crescent Rose onto her lower back. "C'mon, guys." Naruto's struggling sounds and Yang's grunts from keeping her arms locked was the response. " _Guys!_ " she repeated. The little grapple still didn't stop.

"Ugh…" she sounded before she took the initiative and kneeled down next to the stubborn fighters. Using her hands she covered her sister's mouth with one and pinched her nostrils shut with another. "There, now- ew, Yang, licking my hand isn't going to do anything!" Despite her sister's nasty maneuver to get her own breathing back, Ruby held strong, though her face showed her clear displeasure.

Right when it got to the point that Naruto's blue eyes were threatening to roll back into his head did Yang finally let get go to rip Ruby's own grip from her face. After this was done, Ruby stood and backed off, Yang took in several deep breaths, and Naruto simply rolled over onto his stomach like a limp doll. There would've been more worry if Naruto's torso didn't give the impression that he was sucking in some life-giving oxygen. The little clouds of dust that rose into the air near his face from some sporadic breathing also helped.

"I saw her…" they eventually heard Naruto croak out.

Ruby walked over to him with some concern. "Saw who?" she asked.

"The goddess of ramen… she was so beautiful, Ruby… you have no idea…"

"Uh…" Ruby sounded before looking at Yang. The older female only eyed the prone man with a look that said, 'I might've broken him'.

"That… that's nice," Ruby continued before gently patting the side of Naruto's head with whatever reassurance she could offer. "Maybe we should head back. I made a cake. Does that sound good?"

Naruto responded with a small sound that sorta sounded like a whiny 'yes…' to their ears.

"Okay, now let's- hm?" Ruby stopped as she felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket. Taking it out she saw that Qrow had sent her a message. Once reading it over she flinched and whispered, "Oooh…"

"What…?" Naruto questioned as he looked up at her with half-lidded eyes.

"Uh, heh…" she started sheepishly, "Uncle Qrow said that because you haven't done that much strength training over the past week, he wants you to chop and carry back firewood from the trees that you guys knocked over. He also said no cheating by using wind dust for cutting with Hien or chains to help carry it… sorry…" Ruby could only look down at Naruto with pity as he groggily turned his head to look to his right.

Once his head flopped into place and his gaze locked onto the trees in question he felt like crying. He hadn't bothered to look at the result of redirecting or dodging Yang's attacks earlier, but as his eyes lingered on the dozen or so toppled pieces of lumber he wished he had decided to just take the damage head-on with his body. At least then he would've simply only had another familiar instance of post-training damage with no sort of lumberjack work to deal with at all. Now, though, because of Yang's little assault, his mind and body didn't want to do anything rigorous at all, but he knew Qrow would punish him with something worse if he didn't follow through with the task.

The sisters were silent as they tried to gauge Naruto's reaction as best they could. As the blond closed his eyes they nearly thought he passed out until he spoke again in a defeated whisper.

"Yang…?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you please finish me off…?"

Yang blinked, not sure how to respond to such a request even though she was pretty sure there wasn't any seriousness behind it. At least, she hoped there wasn't…

After thinking about his words for a few agonizing seconds in Naruto's mind, Yang jumped back to her feet with some new life as she simply said, "Nah."

"Please…?"

"Nope. Want cake now," she replied and started walking back to the house, though not before reaching down and taking away Naruto's remaining dust capsules from his belt, figuring Qrow didn't want the male to give into temptation and cheat. It was a little cruel, yes, but in her mind it was a little payback from him not admitting defeat.

Seeing the long-haired fighter leave without showing him mercy, Naruto focused his glimmering and pitiful stare at his only other hope. "Ruby…?" he let out like a wounded animal.

There was clear conflict on her face, but after looking from him to the direction of her home a few times, she eventually said, "I'll save you a piece of cake…" And with that, she turned and quickly walked away to avoid the betrayed look on Naruto's whiskered face.

"No…" he weakly reached out with a shaking hand before letting it drop to the dirt as she disappeared into the woods.

Now alone with no hope of getting out of Qrow's request, Naruto only whispered one last thing.

"Cowards…"

* * *

"Okay, I guess we can call it a night," Tai said as he snapped his book shut.

Leaning his head against the couch's backrest, Naruto groaned. "Finally!"

The father shook his head at his fellow blond's reaction. "It wasn't that bad. We've only been doing some review for an hour."

"But what's the point of going over _so_ much random stuff these past couple months if the combat tests are mostly just that; combat!"

Relaxing into his personal chair, Tai said, "Because this will not only help you get through the basic theoretical parts easier, but it'll prepare you for all the classes you'll have to take at Beacon."

Naruto blinked in realization as he stared at the ceiling. He had never really put much thought into the specifics of what he'd be doing once he got into Beacon besides being shaped into becoming a badass huntsman. Thinking of how many reports he'd have to write and exams he'd have to suffer through made him groan again as he lifted his arms to hold the sides of his head in abject horror.

"Ugh, how did I get dragged into this too?" Yang miserably said from next to Naruto. The two males saw that she was still laying down on the couch, her head on top of the armrest, an open notebook sitting on her face and her bootless legs lazily draped over Naruto's lap.

"Pretty much the same reason, sweetie," Tai replied. "I know you're already a shoo-in for Beacon, but studying hasn't been your strong suit either. You need all the practice you can get."

"Grimm won't care about whatever facts I know about history or grammar! They'll be too preoccupied with me punching their faces in!" she dramatically exclaimed, the notebook still managing to stay still over her face.

"You probably wouldn't even remember any facts to tell them, so you'll have no choice but to punc- ow, that's still tender!" Naruto painfully stated when Yang's sock covered foot lifted to lightly stomp against his bicep. It didn't take much power to hurt the vulnerable blond. Lifting and carrying all that wood back to the house left his arms immensely sore.

"You're not one to talk," Yang responded. "If you shook that head of yours then you'd practically hear a jelly bean bouncing around the inside of a tin can."

Naruto was too busy rubbing the afflicted area to really react to her words or even resist when she laid her leg back down in its original spot.

"Yang, don't be mean," Ruby said from nearby as she sat in her special beanbag chair brought downstairs from her room. With comic book in hand and Zwei napping on her lap, the young woman was perfectly comfortable and relaxed.

Finally moving the notebook from obscuring her vision, Yang glanced over to her sister and said, "And why isn't little miss princess suffering like us?" Ruby stuck her tongue out at her in response.

"Because after lunch we already went over a couple of things and she knew it all well enough, and she doesn't have a whole new school to worry about. You could've gotten your part done with at the same time but you procrastinated all the way to Naruto being done outside." The man pointedly looked at his firstborn. "You better not act the same way once you're in Beacon, young lady." He then turned to the other male. "And you better help make sure she doesn't-" He paused once he saw Naruto looking at him with a raised brow. "Actually, same to you." He supposed that after using his teaching ability to help out Naruto, he did find his studying habits to be similar to his daughter of the same age.

Lazily turning his head to Yang, Naruto asked, "Should I be offended?"

"Meh," was her answer.

"Admittedly, you've done pretty well with what information we've gone over, Naruto. Granted, you mostly paid the most attention when the topic was connected to fighting, but you should be proud," Tai complimented with a nod.

"Not so sure it was worth seeing words from the lessons in my nightmares," Naruto responded blankly. In the next instant, he did wipe the look on his face and turned to the father. "But thanks."

Tai smirked. "No problem. Who knows, maybe some more bookwork at a prestigious place like Beacon will unlock a passion for it. I know Ayame would definitely prefer for you to go down the path of an educated man rather than purely a fighter." He wasn't being serious. He knew that Naruto would never go for that. The remark stemmed from some of the times that he and the others went to the ramen stand and saw that the brunette chef always seemed to become a little more anxious when huntsmen talk came up. He couldn't really blame the woman. He'd definitely seen how cruel the world could be, so it was understandable for her to be worried about someone she loved. He supposed that he'd continue to do his part in making sure her worry never went beyond that by checking in with the blond at Beacon and making sure he stayed on track to continue his improvement. Even though Qrow wouldn't outright say it, he'd probably do the same.

All at once the three teens scoffed at his words with Yang and Ruby even holding in some laughter at the thought.

Once the moment passed, Naruto pushed Yang's legs off of him and stood. "Well, if there's nothing else to go over then I guess I'll head back home."

"It's going to get dark soon. You sure you'll be safe going across the water with your arms still sore if you're forced to swim? You can always just stay here for the night," Tai said.

Naruto shook his head at the offer. "It's okay, I'll be fine. Besides, might as well get as much training as possible, right? The runs from between here and Vale have been good to me." After making sure he hadn't forgotten anything important, Naruto turned to the sisters. "I'll see you guys later. If anything interesting happens with the tests I'll let you know. Not sure how much excitement could build up from just being observed for basic skills, though."

" _Aaand_ you jinxed yourself. I fully expect something either awesome or horribly wrong to happen," Yang then tapped Naruto's leg with the back of her hand as she continued to lay down. "But anyway, go get'em. Punching you has been good for my relaxation so don't screw up and flunk. Gonna need you on hand at Beacon whenever something ticks me off or my skills seem to be slacking."

"You know I can fight back, right? It's not like when we first started."

Yang smirked. "I know, but it's more fun that way."

"You're not coming back tomorrow?" Ruby asked after putting her illustrated literature down. "You have to leave on Monday, right?" The current day of Saturday aka junk and jammies day wasn't exactly that plentiful with fun considering Naruto's training and study session with her father. She'd been hoping for them to maybe make up for it the next day, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore.

Naruto looked at Ruby. "Yeah, but the drunk wants me to take a day's rest and not get distracted. He doesn't want any chances of me missing my ride to the exams."

"Oh," Ruby replied with the tiniest hint of disappointment in their ears. "Well, I guess we'll have plenty of time to do stuff after."

"At least until we ship off to Beacon," Yang added.

"Not helping!" Ruby whined, eliciting Zwei to wake up and look around curiously.

Naruto chuckled. "Well anyway, goodnight guys," he said while making his way to the front door.

"Night," the three said with Zwei adding in a bark.

Clicking the door closed behind him Naruto decided to walk for a little bit on the woodland path, at least until he felt all his muscles were properly warmed up to start his usual run. All that lifting earlier and sitting down in one spot for a while left his body stiff, but it wasn't so bad since it was a nice day out. Not too hot or cold and the sun was starting its departure from the open sky and was about paint the area with a myriad of oranges just like how he liked it.

About halfway through his short walk did he see a figure walking towards him pop up from the other side of the small hill he was ascending. The person who saw him as well stopped and looked to be waiting for him at the top, though it was no surprise since the person revealed himself to be Qrow once Naruto drew close.

"Take care of anything important?" Naruto asked once he stopped his pace near the huntsman. Naruto then sniffed the air and confirmed some of his suspicions. "I guess the bar was important…"

Qrow cleared his throat. "What I do with my free time isn't any of your business, and no, that isn't _all_ I did but don't worry yourself about it. It's less stressful that way," he said with a slur. It didn't look like he was too inebriated but he definitely had his fair share. Oh well, at least he seemed cognitive enough to be able to make the journey back to the house.

"I know, I know. By now it's kinda routine for you to go and do your secret huntsman stuff." The blond scoffed and crossed his arms. "Whatever that is," he continued.

The older man narrowed his eyes at his words. _You have no idea, kid,_ he thought. "If you don't get yourself offed by a baby nevermore then maybe you'll find out someday."

"I think I'd at least go out in a much cooler way if it ever comes down to that," Naruto responded.

"Don't tempt fate, brat." He paused as he seemed to mull over something for a bit. Once the quiet moment finished he sighed and raked his hand through his hair. "Listen, Naruto."

 _Huh, when was the last time he used my actual name?_ the blond thought as he straightened his stance.

"After all is said and done at the end of the week, you're not going to be primarily taught by me anymore, so I fully expect you to act like a student of mine from here on out."

Naruto's brow raised. "No outward joy mixed with poor drinking decisions?"

Attempting and failing to not let some annoyance bleed onto his face, Qrow stated, "No. What I mean is you better keep being that annoying little shit that won't go down. I've worked with you long enough to know that you're capable of much more than you are now, so I'm holding you to the same standards I have for Yang and Ruby."

"That being?" Naruto questioned.

Not used to being sentimental, especially to someone who wasn't family, Qrow paused as he looked away at the setting sun. "Like with my nieces, I know you have the means to surpass me, but that'll take some time. To be honest, I wasn't expecting all that much from you when we started. You just seemed like a stupid kid out of his league." Naruto lightly glared in annoyance. "As loathed as I am to admit it, as we worked you met the standards and beyond that of a normal student, and because of that stubbornness I put you through the grinder even harder to see how much you could handle." The man chuckled. "Tai and I saw that you could take a beating and keep improving, but we didn't expect you to keep going like you have been every day. Imagine if we helped you years ago…" he trailed off.

Shaking his head, he continued and turned to stare straight at his temporary student. "Anyway, to keep this simple, you have a long way to go and you will get far, but that's only if you keep learning and never stop moving forward. The combat tests are just a very small part to get through, but the world as a whole isn't going to hesitate from tearing you down so you can't either, and with me giving you that first official push you better keep being stubborn as all hell and piss off those that deserve it. You're now representing yourself, me, and my family from what we passed on to you, so don't look back and don't lose who you are."

Surprise was clear in Naruto's eyes at the huntsman's words. He didn't expect this at all given the man's usual persona. Granted, he was more open when around Tai, Yang, and Ruby, but didn't go that much beyond friendly familiarity as he sometimes teased the girls. This… this was simply foreign to Naruto's view of him.

Qrow saw that Naruto was still thinking over his words. Yeah, the little speech tasted like vinegar escaping his mouth, but he felt he had to let it out. He figured the kid had been through enough to get something along the lines of a simple 'good job' but that didn't quite cut it.

Once the words were finally processed in the blond's mind, Naruto opened up his arms and walked forward with seemingly shimmering eyes. "You _do_ care- agh, you dick!" Naruto exclaimed while holding his sore stomach that was just given a 'love tap' from Qrow's fist as he approached with a dramatic hug. "I was just joking, dattebayo! You didn't have to punch me!" He swore at least one member of their family had to hit him for every visit, and this had been the second time within twenty minutes in a non-training situation.

Qrow developed a smirk as he saw Naruto rub the affected area. "Huh, must've had more than I thought. I was aiming for your face." With that out of the way, the older man began his descent on the hill's path.

Turning to the man's back as he walked by, Naruto with some irritation asked, "Any other words of wisdom, old man?"

Qrow stopped and audibly hummed before turning around to meet Naruto's gaze. "Well, when a mommy crow and a daddy crow love each other very-"

"Never mind!" Naruto exclaimed as he turned around with a roll of his eyes.

Of course the two couldn't go their separate ways while ending on that sentimental note. In the back of their minds the both of them knew that if one didn't break that cheesy mood, then the other would gladly do something. They've never been ones to be all touchy-feely, _especially_ with each other, and they sure as hell weren't going to start now. They'd probably wait till one of them was on their deathbed before that happened.

Even so, as the two lost sight of each other, neither could stop themselves from cracking a small grin as they went their own ways.

* * *

Like any other morning in Naruto's bedroom, it was quiet with the usually lone occupant peacefully snoozing it all away. The original plan to spend the rest of the morning was for Naruto to awake to the annoying sound of his scroll's alarm, do his usual routine, eat, and then take off for the tests, but that changed when the blond felt something pushing on his chest.

Right at the peak of being awake Naruto very briefly spared the thought of how being disturbed from his sleep had sadly been becoming more common of an occurrence over the months since his training in Patch began.

Very slowly the blond blinked his eyes open as the tapping on his chest resumed. Once the blurriness mostly vanished as he looked at the ceiling, he then lifted his head to see what the disturbance was. He barely had to go far at all since his cranium's rise was blocked once he bumped noses with a canine he had become very familiar with.

"Zwei?" Naruto grumbled. After a second he realized that it had been the dog using his front paws to repeatedly bounce against his chest like he was doing CPR to bring back him from the land of dreams.

The corgi barked before taking that opportunity to give the blond a couple of licks along the side of his jaw. Without much thought, Naruto brought a hand out from under the blanket to simultaneously stop the licking and start petting Zwei's head as he held him close to his chest. That was when another presence became known.

"Aaand Rubyyy…" the female scythe-wielder drawled out with an extended whisper as her head starting rising up from the right side of his bed where she had apparently been hiding. "Morning," she whispered again while gracing him with a smile as she leaned against the mattress.

Naruto blinked at her. "Uh… morning?"

"And Yang!" the elder sister shouted into Naruto's ear from the other side of his bed.

Predictably the male jumped from shock and had to hastily catch Zwei as he quickly sat up, now wide awake for the most part. Calming his heart rate and breathing down, Naruto slowly turned to Yang as she had a wide toothy smile while leaning close to his face. "Morning," she now whispered to copy her sister.

Naruto looked at her dully as she leaned back to stand with her hands on her hips.

"What are you guys doing here…?" he finally asked.

Taking a seat on the mattress, Ruby said, "Did you really expect us to let you take off without saying goodbye in person?"

"Um, I guess not… But this early? I don't take off until noon." he responded.

"Didn't want to take any chances," Yang added. "I might've had to really force myself to come here by seven in the morning, but hey, life's an adventure." She shrugged and had to stifle the yawn she felt coming. At least she was able to take a quick nap on the boat ride to Vale. Ruby took the very early wake up better than her at least. All she had to do was fix herself up some hot chocolate that was mixed with what only the gods knew since she seemed to start vibrating from the first sip.

"And you guys just walked on up, huh?" Naruto rubbed the crust from his eye before yawning.

"Yep," Ruby started, "because the door was—wait for it— _open_!" she finished while wiggling her fingers in the air like they performed an act of magic to reach his room.

"Ayame was fixing up some coffee downstairs and told us to just wake you up," Yang said to give a tiny bit more context.

"Ah," Naruto replied. Giving Zwei one more scratch behind the ear before sitting him next to Ruby, he said, "Well, let me get ready and I'll meet you guys in a little bit."

"'Kay," Ruby replied as she jumped off the mattress and followed Yang through the bedroom door with Zwei trotting behind.

Once the door clicked shut he got up and changed out of the muscle shirt and athletic shorts he wore as bedwear and into his normal ensemble of a black shirt with his orange swirl, black pants, burned orange hoodie, and sneakers instead of boots for comfort. After placing his headband and pendant around his neck he made his way to the others.

As he walked through the small living room and got close to the stairs his eyes briefly flickered to a wall and nearby shelf as they gazed at some framed pictures. There were some that were taken over the course of his childhood where he posed with Teuchi and Ayame, or maybe just one of them depending on the situation, but some recent additions had been added. One was the group picture that Ruby made that Signal janitor take when he received Hien. Next to that was one Ayame had taken of him and the resident Patch family as they all sat at the ramen stand counter, all smiling except for Qrow who was caught by surprise as he was sipping from his flask.

He chuckled as he passed them and began going down the steps to the kitchen.

"C'mon, Teuchi! Just give me some hint! Is it the market where you get your ingredients or is it something like the time spent kneading the dough?" Tai's near begging voice rang out.

Naruto came upon the scene of Tai leaning over the counter to meet a stone-faced Teuchi as he sharpened a knife. Next to the father was Qrow as he sat watching the exchange while leaning his head on his hand. The Branwen spared Naruto a lazy nod as he saw him go down the final step.

"Just like the other times, don't even bother, Taiyang. How I make my ramen is and will always remain a family secret." The chef then drew the knife a little uncomfortably close to the Xiao Long's face. "Why are you so keen on learning, hm? Did someone put you up to this? Perhaps a certain businessman?" he asked suspiciously.

"No… it's just really good," Tai replied while backing off a tad. He was only interested because he enjoyed cooking as well, and even though he wasn't going to make a restaurant or something of the sort he was still someone looking to improve his craft. Qrow's comments—which may or may not have just been out of spite at the time—about his own noodles being overcooked may have also played a part in his interest in the Ichiraku's cooking.

"Stop being paranoid, old man," Naruto told Teuchi. Stepping over Zwei as he drank from a water bowl he took his usual seat in-between the sisters as they were both eating breakfast prepared by Ayame. Shortly after sitting she placed down his own plate which he gladly started to dig into.

Teuchi put the knife away but gave the blond father a warning stare. "Can't ever be too careful," he said.

Replaying Teuchi's words where he said the ramen was a family secret, Tai said, "Heeey, Naruto-"

"Save your breath. I don't know much about the specifics at all," Naruto cut in after his bite of scrambled eggs. "And don't even try to pick at Ayame's brain. She's not all infected with paranoia but she still takes it seriously."

Tai slumped on his stool in defeat.

"So, you excited?" Ruby asked Naruto with a muffled mouthful of food. Before Naruto could reply Ayame had come over to the youngest person present and sternly looked at her. Ruby shrunk into herself with her cheeks still puffed out a little from her meal. Without a word, the brunette raised the spatula in her hand and placed it under the girl's chin and started to push up and down. Following the motion, Ruby began to chew the rest of her food, albeit with some fear still left in her eyes. Once swallowing what was left Ayame patted the girl's head a couple of times and walked away, though she did make a point of sending a warning glance to Naruto and Yang. Their own eating habits sometimes weren't the best either.

After relishing not being the main target of Ayame's rule for a second, Naruto responded with, "Yeah. I mean, I've been readying myself for this for a long time, so how can I not be?"

"You mean _we've_ been readying you. Probably would've ended up stabbing yourself if it wasn't for us," Qrow chimed in before sipping his coffee. "If you lose your cool at all you might do it anyway."

"Your input is greatly appreciated, master Qrow," Naruto replied sarcastically.

"As it should be." He sipped his drink again.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure if I told the other candidates your wise lessons they'd soak it all up. Things like 'love is for fools' and 'it's only considered cheating if you get caught' are both great pieces of advice for a young and impressionable trainee. And we can't forget that nice little conversation about never telling a cute waitress your real name in case you wanna-"

" _What_ have you been teaching him…?" Ayame whispered dangerously as she had somehow appeared in front of the black-haired man.

Not blinking at her threatening stare or the knife her father had just set down being pointed at him, Qrow simply said, "Life, sweetheart. Been teaching him about life." Another sip of coffee was taken.

The woman looked ready to fire back verbally but Tai cut in. "Don't let him get to you, and don't worry about Naruto. He never takes Qrow outside of combat training seriously."

"Oh, and you're someone he listens to like a good little student?" Qrow retorted in the same uninterested tone, now ignoring Ayame as the woman merely crossed her arms and still looked at him irritably.

"Of course. Naruto now knows much more academically and the importance of honor, justice, and how to properly present himself as a noble huntsman," he said with a hint of pride.

Naruto looked at Tai blankly. "You tried to show me the importance of flossing…" he muttered but ultimately went ignored by everyone.

The father spun in his seat to Ruby and more specifically Naruto behind her. "Isn't that right, Naruto? Up top!" he stated while holding his hand up for a high five.

Naruto internally cringed, something he saw others follow, and outwardly said, "Please don't do that…" It only popped up rarely, but even if it happened all the time the teen didn't think he'd ever get used to the whole awkward dad thing...

Used to the behavior and knowing just how to set the father off, Qrow said, "Did he also learn how to overcook noo-"

Tai turned back around in rage. " _Again_ with the noodles! How many times are you going to bring-"

" _Okay_! Present time! Happy feelings! No fighting! Yay!" Ruby exclaimed with as much positivity as she could to stop the negative mood.

Yang glanced at her finished food before smirking and saying, "Yeah, don't get too _fed_ up!"

Naruto audibly groaned and closed his eyes. If they had stayed open he would've seen the others around him either shake their heads or look away from the recoil in their souls. Pointing his squinted gaze to Yang, the whiskered teen with a seemingly damaged spirit asked, "Why…?"

Yang flicked his nose. "You know that was gold," she replied.

Rubbing the afflicted area, Naruto interestingly said, "And what was that about present time, Ruby?"

Ruby showed her pearly whites. "Exactly what I said! You've sorta graduated from a crash course in combat and other huntsmen stuff so time for presents!"

Pulling him from his seat, the young woman led Naruto to one of the few booths in the small dining area and saw that two small gift bags, one red and the other yellow, were hidden behind one of the cushioned seats.

The others watched on as Ruby grabbed the smaller of the two and held it up to Naruto. "This one's from me."

Smiling, Naruto took it and pushed the colorful tissue paper that filled the bag aside and reached in. Grabbing something he guessed was made of metal, he pulled the object out to see what it was.

It turned out to be brass in color which wasn't so surprising since it was a bullet cartridge. On the flat end's surface and encircling the primer was his name engraved in black. Wrapped around the entirety of what used to be the smooth body were a bunch of etches in black as well, and after holding it in his fingers to turn and look at more closely he realized that an overview picture of downtown Patch had been engraved with Signal Academy looking more prominent as the main part of the display. After taking in the refined detail that was put into it, Naruto looked at the last interesting part which was where he figured a bullet used to be at the tip. Instead of finding the spot empty, there was instead a nearly clear crystal carved in the exact same shape and size of the bullet that used to call the brass shell home.

Seeing that Naruto took it all in, Ruby said, "The cartridge was from the first shot you fired with Hien. I remember you hitting the target so I grabbed the casing for good luck. The smith at Signal has a little side job of doing some metal artwork for tourists, so I asked him to engrave Patch in some sort of panorama. The bullet was gone obviously gone so Yang had the idea for him to also put a wind dust crystal into it since that's what makes Hien even more tick as a sword. So… yeah, there ya go!" she finished with a chuckle.

Naruto looked at the commemorative gift again before grinning even wider. "This means a lot, Ruby. Thank you." And with that, he used his arm that wasn't holding the gift to pull the girl in for a hug that was quickly returned.

"And now the other one…" Yang teasingly said from behind Naruto.

Glancing at the older sister, he shook his head in mirth figuring the other bag was from her. Doing the same for the remaining bag, Naruto pulled out a pair of objects that at first glance were all too familiar. "Are these my gloves? I thought I lost them a couple of weeks ago."

Lifting her elbow to rest on Naruto's shoulder, Yang cheekily said, "Yeah, you did lose them. To me. I swiped them when you took a shower at the house."

"And why didn't you give them back?"

"Did a little something to 'em. Look."

Admittedly, they did seem _off_ when he grabbed them from the bag, but looking at them now he was able to clearly see the additions that were made. The metal plates on the back of his hands and knuckles were attached at the same spots on the black cloth, but they now shined with not only silver but also in a gentle amount of yellow and orange depending on what angle they were viewed from. Taking in the pearlescent colors, he saw that his parent's emblems were still on the main metal plates while the knuckle guards had even been lengthened to cover both the proximal and middle phalanx of his fingers instead of only the former. He guessed that Yang wanted his punches to have more bite to them. The black cloth still looked the same, but the material seemed to be made from some higher quality stuff. After feeling and examining the pair further he was also able to find that his fingers traced over flexible yet very sturdy padding sewn into the palms.

"Thought you'd like to have them spruced up a bit with my own personal touch. They look good but they're more practical too," Yang said in satisfaction.

Naruto chuckled before looking to see Yang hold her arms out. "Come on. I get my own too, don't I?"

Taking a step forward Naruto hugged the girl close like he did Ruby. While in the embrace Yang took the opportunity to move her lips near Naruto's ear to whisper, "And just so you know, there is a pretty good amount more of yellow on the middle fingers' guards. Thought it'd be appropriate for a bigger piece of me to be there in case you ever want to flip the bird with either hand."

Holding in a laugh, Naruto gave her another squeeze before they separated.

"Okay, you three, get together and smile!" The teens looked back at the counter to see that Tai suddenly pulled his scroll out to take a picture.

Yang groaned. "Dad, do you always have t-"

"It's my job, sweetie. Now you and your sister get around Naruto. Naruto, make sure you show the gifts my girls got you. All of you also remember to stand up straight because memories are tainted by poor posture."

Begrudgingly, the sisters each stood on a side of Naruto. The picture they had no problem with, but since they were sort of ordered to do it by their father, it almost felt like a chore. However, when they got into position those thoughts vanished as they looked at the camera's lens. Behind Tai, Ayame had also subtly taken out her own scroll to capture the image.

Holding the bullet in one hand and the gloves in the other, Naruto wrapped his arms around the sister's shoulders to pull them in. Of course the hand with the cartridge was on Ruby's side with the gloves on Yang's. Had to have consistency after all.

With them all huddled and the gifts in Naruto's grip for a clear look, the father and ramen chef took several snaps of the scene to make sure they got a good one captured.

Looks like both households would be getting another picture to hang up and join the others.

* * *

The next couple of hours were spent lazing about, making small talk, and checking out a few of the nearby stores. When it came time for Naruto's departure the ramen stand was temporarily closed and they all made their way to a sizable lot near the docks. The open area would be filled with several airships waiting to take any registered huntsmen hopefuls to the site of the exams.

Once they arrived they all stopped just outside the edge of the crowd of young adults that continued to accumulate.

With Hien on his back, Ruby's bullet securely put away, his Yang-approved gloves fastened in place, and a duffle bag over his shoulder, Naruto turned the group. "Welp, this is where I get off."

Ayame stepped forward first and gently grabbed his cheeks with her hands. "Be careful while you're there and behave, okay? It wouldn't be good to get hurt or in trouble right before all the eligible students leave for Beacon."

"I won't be gone long so there shouldn't be much to worry about." Seeing her stare he also added, "But okay, I promise I'll do my best to not get mixed up in anything stupid. I don't want this all to go to waste, remember?"

"I'm going to hold you to that." Pulling his face down and leaning up, she left a lasting kiss on his cheek. "Love you. Stay safe."

Naruto smiled. "Love you too."

Ayame then pulled away and let the three men talk to Naruto next.

"Remember everything we've tried to force into that skull of yours, Naruto. I guarantee a small fraction of anything you've learned will save your life someday and will definitely help you out over the next few days," Tai said.

"And don't lose in anything or to anyone," Qrow said before taking a swig from his flask. "I got money on the line so don't screw this up for me." Taiyang looked at him in disapproval while Teuchi merely shook his head, though there was a hint of a smile from seeing another example of the huntsmen's differing personalities.

"Just remember to have fun while you're there. This is only going to be a small part in the grand scheme of things, but I know you'll make us proud," the ramen chef finished with a grin as he pat Naruto on the shoulder.

"I'll try to keep that all in mind," Naruto replied with some amusement.

The sisters then came up to take the trio's place. Yang jabbed Naruto in his arm and said, "Put those gloves to good use. I want some entertaining stories when you come back."

Naruto rubbed the lightly throbbing spot. "You got it," he muttered back and received one last hug from her.

Ruby, on the other hand, hugged him right away before looking up at him and simply saying, "I expect a souvenir."

The blond laughed and hugged her back. "I'll see what I can do."

It wasn't long before the other participants started to pile into the airships with Naruto included. The two families silently stood by as they watched him disappear into the crowd that was getting smaller as the minutes ticked on by. Eventually, after closing the doors, turning on the engines, and doing some safety checks, one by one the pilots started to slowly lift their vessels into the air. When each met a certain altitude the one closest to the ocean turned, upped its engine's power, and took off, the roar of its mechanical power echoing along with the others that soon followed.

Ruby sighed as the last ship vanished in the horizon.

"It's not that bad. He's gonna be back soon, y'know?" Yang said her sister.

"I knooow, but now I'm stuck with you until he's done." She mostly meant that as a joke but she immediately wished she thought it through once Yang looked at her with narrowed red eyes.

Yang's stare went on for several more seconds before she smirked and said, "Well, since you're stuck with me that'll give me plenty of time to help you work on your hand-to-hand."

Ruby's complexion paled. _Oh no_.

She really wished her semblance had the distance to reach Naruto's ship. Heck, trying before inevitably falling into the ocean was probably the better option at the moment since Yang was already started to stretch her arms.

One look at the others around her told her she wasn't going to get much support for two reasons. One: the Ichiraku's had no say in her training, and two: she swore that she saw her father and uncle ever so slightly nod in agreement.

Feeling a fearful whine start to emanate from her throat, she internally screamed, _Save me, Naruto!_

* * *

Naruto had to suddenly cover his sneeze with his arm as he was looking out the window from the roomy passenger/observation deck. Sniffing and rubbing under his nostrils, he went on with his viewing of the passing ocean.

A short clicking sound echoed across the ship's intercom system. "Alright, everyone, this is your captain. There appears to be nothing but clear skies so sit back and enjoy the trip. We should be arriving at the island of Vytal within an hour or so."

Naruto let a big smile grow on his face from the captain's words. This was actually pretty exciting given that this was his first time flying, well, besides being knocked into the sky momentarily for whatever reason. If this was merely a small taste of this little adventure, then he was pumped for the new sights to see, challenges to take on, and people to meet.

It was this excitement that distracted Naruto's mind from the fact that he was sitting sideways, letting his folded knee take up another spot next to him while he looked out the window. That's why it was no surprise when the long and cushioned seats hugging the walls reached maximum occupancy that someone eventually walked up and cleared their throat.

"This seat taken?" a feminine voice asked.

Realizing that his lounged position prevented another person from relaxing, he quickly turned and started moving his other stuff that was on the ground out of the way. Still staring at and positioning Hien and his duffle bag under his seat, he said, "No, go ahead. And sorry. Didn't know I was in the way."

"It's okay," the woman replied as Naruto heard her sit down and take something out of the dark suitcase she brought.

A few moments later Naruto was satisfied with his positioning and sat back up. Facing the stranger and holding a hand out, he kindly said, "I'm Naruto by the way."

Amber eyes turned away from the book they were reading and met the Uzumaki's blue ones. Glancing at the outstretched hand, the owner of the eyes reached out with her own to politely shake it.

"Blake."

* * *

(Omake - Alternative Take - The Nevermores and the Lancers)

Qrow developed a smirk as he saw Naruto rub the affected area. "Huh, must've had more than I thought. I was aiming for your face." With that out of the way, the older man began his descent on the hill's path.

Turning to the man's back as he walked by, Naruto with some irritation asked, "Any other words of wisdom, old man?"

Qrow stopped and audibly hummed before turning around to meet Naruto's gaze. "Well, when a mommy crow and a daddy crow love each other very-"

"Never mind!" Naruto exclaimed as he turned around with a roll of his eyes.

"Listen, you brat, this is important!" he called out, the slur becoming more evident. Maybe the drinks he had earlier were finally starting to hit him full force?

Against his better judgment, Naruto faced the man again.

Seeing that he had his attention, Qrow continued a little more groggily. "Anyway, when the mommy crow and the daddy crow love each other very much… or... at least the mommy crow does- wait…" He rubbed his forehead. "When the mommy crow or… just someone who says they want to be a mommy crow, specifically with the other crow in the picture, says they think they love you very much, it's time to book it and fly away."

Naruto had no idea how literal that statement was.

"Uh, Qrow-"

"And of course when the daddy crow does that, the mommy crow's father wants to kill the daddy crow in his sleep the next time he stays in his inn, even when the mommy- no, the daughter, waitress, whatever crow knew what she was getting into when the daddy- uh, travelling huntsman crow came into town for only a few days!"

"I don't think you're sticking to-"

"And what gives the waitress crow the right to demand that the huntsman crow stay to start a family when she knew he wasn't looking for a relationship in the first place and had a bunch of other top secret obligations to take care of for the headmaster crow?! Why the crazy waitress crow had suddenly made that decision within two days of meeting the huntsman crow is any crow's guess!"

"Okay, I'm starting to think you drank a little too mu-"

"It also didn't help that when the equally psychotic innkeeper or father crow started lighting up a damn makeshift flamethrower using the waitress crow's big-ass can of imported hairspray and a torch, the bitch cro- sister crow- or raven- who cares- suddenly decides to pop up through one of her portals of bitchy doom and freak the hell out of all the crows in the establishment!"

Naruto slowly backed away as the man's ramblings kept on going well past the point that the blond couldn't even hear him. Along with seeing the man at his most sentimental a few minutes prior, Naruto didn't expect to immediately see him explode with emotion in the complete opposite direction. One thing was for sure in Naruto's mind, though.

He'd probably stay away from alcohol as long as he possibly could.

* * *

 **AN: And here we go into the Combat Test arc. Don't know how long it'll be but should be fun.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this. Don't expect to be spoiled by another quick-ish update. I was just on a roll for this one. Also, it turns out listening to "Home" from volume 4 really helps with motivation to write anything remotely sappy.**

 ***Insert usual thanks to Fan-Of-FictionX01 for helping correct plot and grammar bullshittery here***

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! Please leave a review of your thoughts. I really want to know what you guys think.**

 **Later!**


	6. A Good First Impression

**AN: This late update is brought to you by an unexpected and panicky moving situation, no internet, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Monster Hunter: World, my job, and good ol' procrastination.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: A Good First Impression**

"So, how well do you think Mr. Uzumaki will fare, Qrow?"

"He should be fine. Trust me, there isn't anything on that island that he can't handle. All things considered, like the normal tests taken at the combat schools, this should practically be routine."

A small sip sounded throughout the quiet office. "And on the off chance that something goes awry?"

The click of a tongue was heard through the scroll's speaker. "Oz, if he manages to screw this all up then you owe me compensation for the time I invested."

Ozpin chuckled as he lowered his mug to rest on his desk. Turning his cog-themed chair that matched the rest of his office to the side, the headmaster of Beacon said, "If it comes to that, then what sort of restitution did you have in mind?"

"I'll figure something out. You can count on plenty of vacation time being thrown into the mix, though."

"And Taiyang? He volunteered much of his own time as well to help with young Naruto."

"Get him a new toaster or something then. I can guarantee he'd actually be excited about it."

"I'll be sure to take that into consideration." The gray-haired man stood from his seat and walked over to the large clock-esque window that gave him a miraculous view of Beacon's grounds and beyond. "What do you suppose your nieces shall receive for their efforts, hm? Surely they too had a considerable impact on the young man's development."

"Just keep an extra eye on them while they're at the academy for me and Tai like we know you will regardless. I doubt they'd want anything in return for helping their friend out anyway. What's with these hypotheticals? You really betting on the kid screwing up?"

"Nothing of the sort, I'm simply making conversation. When waiting for the semester to start and having gotten most of the important planning out of the way, one tends to have an extra helping of time every now and then."

"And since when has time ever been a problem?"

The corner of Ozpin's lips uplifted from the response. "I suppose you have a point there."

With scroll still held to his ear, the headmaster continued to stare out his window, specifically in the direction of a certain island.

"Oz?" Qrow eventually said when the silence grew too long.

Ozpin blinked away his minor trance. "Ah, pardon me. I was momentarily lost in thought."

"About?"

The gray-haired huntsman hummed lightly to himself. "They should be landing soon, correct?"

Qrow paused before answering. "Uh, yeah. The ships took off about an hour ago. Should be touching down any minute now."

"Do you think he'll take well to the kingdoms' representatives? To my knowledge, he hasn't had much, if any, contact with those outside Vale."

"Don't know. That'll be up to him, but I can't imagine meeting anyone new will be a big deal at all." Ozpin guessed that Qrow must've remembered something from the suddenly amused grunt he let out. "I just really hope he somehow manages to get under _her_ skin. It's always satisfying knowing she isn't as unflappable as she thinks."

Knowing exactly who the man was referring to, Ozpin smiled and said, "Well, then we shall see if he joins the prestigious list of those who are able to do so, alongside yourself and her father."

"He shouldn't even consider himself a true student of mine if he isn't able to."

"We'll simply have to find out once everything is done for the most part. Perhaps luck will strike and something interesting will be included in the assessments."

"Don't get your hopes up. While these tests are more along the lines of 'show us what you got or go home', not much ever happens."

"Indeed." Ozpin ever so slightly narrowed his eyes as he once again dove into his thoughts. "Well, regardless of the fact that the headmasters are given immediate video and written testimonies once everything is complete, I'd ask that-"

"'That should anything noteworthy occur with Naruto, let me know'. I know, Oz." Qrow groaned. "I'm sure I'll be nothing but ecstatic once he gets into Beacon so I don't have to hear that anymore."

"Yes, yes, and you'll be mostly free once more when your hands are wiped clean of one less burden."

Ozpin heard the other man sigh. "I didn't mean it like that."

Looking satisfied, Ozpin said, "I know. I only wanted to see if there's still some light in that dusty old heart of yours."

"Bite me." And with that, Ozpin heard the click from Qrow ending the call.

Pocketing his scroll after the amusing talk, Ozpin brought his gaze back forward. Looking through the window he used one half of his focus to look at the horizon with the other half staring at his own reflection. Like so many times before he found his mind practically thinking of nothing and everything at once as he simply let the silence tick on by. So preoccupied was he that he didn't quite notice someone else enter the room.

"Professor Ozpin?"

The headmaster turned his head a tad and saw his blonde colleague's reflection staring at his back. Turning to face her, he held his arms behind his back as he said, "Ms. Goodwitch."

The huntress gestured to the folders she had in her arms. "The files of the examinees you requested?"

"Ah, yes, of course."

"Is everything okay?" Glynda asked as Ozpin slowly made his way back into his chair, his mind still not completely there.

The man schooled his features and graced her with his usual professional smile. "Yes, all is well. No need to fret over anything at the moment."

The woman stepped back and watched as the headmaster dove right into the profiles of his potential students. Seeing that he was going to be preoccupied for some time, she turned to leave the office. "If you say so."

* * *

"Sooo you like to read?"

"Mhmm."

"Is the book you have right now any good?"

"It's okay."

"Um… do you read comics too?"

"I've dabbled."

"Have a favorite series?"

"Not particularly."

"Oh." Naruto patted his thighs a couple of times as he let out a prolonged breath. The entire trip so far had either been silence as he stared out the window or just a bunch of what may be counted as small talk. The black-haired girl with the bow hadn't really given him much to work with and always gave short answers with the barest of emotion. He was also pretty positive that she hadn't so much as moved her amber eyes away from her literature since their short introduction.

A subtle glance back at her confirmed that her eyes were still locked firmly onto the pages. With nothing else going on he took that moment to quickly take in bits of her attire such as the dark scarf around her neck and ribbons on her forearms, along with the similarly colored buttoned vest, low-heeled boots and stockings with a touch of faded purple. The only other bits that weren't dark in nature were the white sleeveless halter undershirt and shorts, the silver cuff around a detached black sleeve on her left arm, and the white flame on the outside of her stockings that looked to be her emblem.

All in all, the dark ensemble went hand in hand with the demeanor she had shown so far, though that didn't mean she was negative per se; indifferent would be a better term.

Leaning back in his seat, he decided to try and strike a conversation with the person on the other side of him. Turning his head to the male with a light green mohawk and shaved head, he said, "So, what's-"

"Don't talk to me," was the young man's stern response, not even bothering to take his eyes away from his scroll's screen in front of him.

Trying not to let the twitch in his eye show, the blond faced forward and simply let out a breath through his nose, deeming anymore effort for the time being not worth it.

Naruto had nearly missed it, but with not much noise interfering for a split-second, he was barely able to pick up on the green-haired boy's whisper of, "Damned faunus."

 _Oh please let there be a combat portion between us…_ Naruto thought with annoyance, now not bothering to hide it from his face. It seemed that even within the up and coming generation of huntsmen, instances of intolerance were still present, though that wasn't hard to believe considering the recent activities of the White Fang. Even if his words were technically wrong in regards to him for obvious reasons, that didn't dispel the contempt behind them.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, Blake's grip on her book tightened, her eyes narrowed, and there was an almost unnoticeable twitch from her bow. For the first time since their little introduction, she spared a glance back to the young man and eyed him more closely, figuring he heard the same thing.

She saw it was obvious he didn't take too kindly to the mohawked male's lone interaction with him, but it looked like he decided to simply ignore and move on, one of the many common reactions to this sort of thing she'd witnessed firsthand. She hadn't really paid the blond any mind beyond seeing the seat available next to him and their small back and forth, though it wasn't personal; she just preferred sticking to herself. Now that she was observing what apparently classified him as a faunus, she found her mind following an interesting path.

The three dark markings on each of his cheeks weren't exactly something she'd seen before. Normally when a faunus has whiskers, they're _actual_ whiskers. They only looked like some tattoos or perfectly parallel scars for the most part. Now the bit of anger she earlier felt for his sake was replaced with curiosity. Was he some sort of weirdo trying to pass as a faunus? Did he simply think the markings were cool or some sort of fashion statement? Maybe he was a faunus and she hadn't seen his specific characteristics before, or they could potentially be birthmarks? Even with the possibilities piling up, it was apparent that the unnamed testee sitting on Naruto's other side didn't need any more evidence than a quick peek at his face.

Her thoughts were broken when she saw that his blue eyes lit up like he remembered something before he reached into a side pocket in his duffel bag and stuck his hand inside. Feeling around for its supposed contents, she witnessed his contemplative look switch to one of confusion. Pulling his hand back out revealed a hardcover book that looked about the size of a novel. Naruto stared at the item for a bit and then flipped it over to the front cover where a note was taped.

"I told Ayame to replace your comics and sneak in a few actual books. Hope you can build a taste for real literature while you're not busy... Tukson. That bastard…" she heard him mutter as he read the message.

Her eyes widening, Blake quietly gasped and whispered, "Tukson…?"

"Huh?" Naruto sounded as he turned to her. "You say something?"

"Uh…" She looked back at the book.

Noticing where her gaze was at, he said, "Oh, this isn't mine. I have a friend in Vale that owns a bookstore. I usually get my comics from him but I guess he wanted to mess with me before I took off. Man, I was really looking forward to catching up on the arc I was on…" He sighed and leaned back into his seat, though he blinked once he realized he was at least having a better conversation with Blake than before and tried to build on that. Not like he was going to kill time on the piece of literature currently in his grasp, at least not yet.

Sitting up straight, he turned to her. "If you pass and decide to go to Beacon, you should visit the place. He has all kinds of books you'd probably like."

"...What's it called?" she replied after a quiet pause, trying to keep her emotions cooled all the while.

Naruto smiled. "Tukson's Book Trade." The whiskered teen's face grew annoyed as he brought the book to his face again. "Though don't get too close to him or he and his sideburns will mess with you and take away what you love…" His comics better be okay when he got back, he swore to the gods…

With Naruto's gaze and ire not towards her, he missed the look of surprise that welled up on Blake's face.

 _Sideburns? So that's where he went…_ she thought.

Looking back at Blake, the blond lazily waved the book in the air. "You know this one?"

She wordlessly nodded after glancing at the title.

Naruto curiously looked at her. "What's it about?"

After a moment of hesitation, she bookmarked her page and placed her reading material onto her lap and silently sighed. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to at least talk about something she actually cared about. "It's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." She remembered the tale of Jekyll and Hyde clearly. It happened to be one of the books that Tukson tossed her way when she started to dive into the world of literature.

Now that she thought about it, perhaps she should read it again at some point in the future?

The blond made an intrigued grunt. "And I'm taking a wild guess that one is evil or something?"

Blake nodded.

Naruto looked at the cover with a bit more focus. "I'd imagine that being a pain, having something inside you trying to make you something you aren't. If something bad was crawling around my soul, I'd be pretty pissed."

"Well, that isn't _exactly_ what happens in the story," she replied, a little more emotion finding its way into her voice.

"Then what's going on with mister two souls?"

A glint appeared in Blake's amber eyes. "You'll have to read and find out."

Naruto blankly looked at her. "Should've expected that."

A ghost of a smile appeared on the young woman's lips as she went back to reading her own book. Naruto thought she cut the conversation there until she emotionlessly said, "Your little comic will still be there when the tests are over. Might as well spend some extra time on an actual novel in the meantime."

A look of exaggerated shock broke out on the Uzumaki's whiskered face. "'Little' comic? You are severely underestimating the quality of this series."

A skeptical raise of a delicate eyebrow was the only answer he got.

Undeterred, Naruto decided to prove his point. With a smile, he began, "So it all starts with this timid little kid who wants to be a hero…"

Their conversation continued on from that point for a while, though it was mostly Naruto talking with the dark-haired girl politely listening as she read. Even with the blond's excitement over the topic making his words jumbled at times, especially while trying to avoid spoilers, Blake was able to get a grasp of what he was getting at regarding the apparent comic series. She had to admit she was intrigued by the end of Naruto's explanation, but the young woman wasn't making the story a priority to look into. Maybe she'd get around to it someday, but she already had a steady backlog to catch up on as it was.

As Naruto went off on another tangent Blake gave a quiet sigh. While this conversation was rather appealing to a bibliophile like herself, Naruto's seemingly limitless energy was, ironically enough, becoming rather exhausting. She knew he meant well and was just trying to be friendly, but right now all the raven-haired introvert wanted to do was get as comfortable as possible and focus on the book in front of her. She was just getting to the good part too!

It was then that the heavens seemingly noticed her plight and the surrounding speakers rang out for the second and possibly last time since they first left Vale.

"Okay, passengers, we will be touching down in a few short moments. Everyone, please retrieve your belongings and exit in an orderly fashion once instructed to do so by the flight staff. Hope you all enjoyed the trip and good luck."

The vessel was then filled with the sounds of everyone packing their things while talking amongst themselves in excitement. After grabbing his bag and weapon, Naruto was going to say something else to Blake but that train of thought was halted when he felt the ship begin its landing process, nearly making him lose his footing.

Like clockwork everyone started crowding around the exits, eagerly waiting for the doors to open and let them out. In the commotion and small amounts of pushing that came with it, Naruto was separated from the dark-haired girl. He was a little disappointed at that realization, but he quickly figured that they'd bump into each other again at some point.

It didn't take much longer after that for an attendant to let the potential students file out and ever so slowly Naruto made his way back into fresh air once again.

The teen shielded his eyes from the sun for a moment as he kept pace with the crowd. His vision clearing, he saw that their group was the last to disembark. The other two from Vale was a little further ahead and looked to have merged when they reached a checkpoint of sorts not far from the open landing area with the ocean at their backs. He also noticed several other different ships near them and even a couple of docked boats disembarking, probably holding people that came from the other continents. Without any other choice, he and the other potential academy students joined up with the others.

Now all together as one group, the constant muttering to one another started growing in volume and those not at the front really had no idea what else to do.

That is until a stern voice overpowered everyone else's.

"Enough!"

And just like that, all was silent for several seconds until the owner of the voice continued.

"I understand you aren't all well versed in the expected etiquette befitting an elite huntsman or huntress recruit, but that doesn't mean you couldn't have taken this chance to make a good first impression." Due to the silence, practically everyone was able to hear firm click-like footsteps as they seemed to pace back and forth on the pavement. "So far I'm not impressed, but that's usually a given at this stage in your possible careers. Undisciplined. Disorderly. All around greenhorns. That's all you'll ever be if you don't take the time during these entrance exams to make myself and the other representatives think otherwise."

The footsteps stopped yet the silence and tense atmosphere remained. Having taken advantage of everyone's focus, Naruto managed to squirm his way towards the front and got a good look at the speaker as she talked again.

"If any of you even have a smidge of doubt in your own abilities, then I highly implore that you get back on your ship and go back home. I'd rather not have my time wasted on fodder that don't have the drive to succeed at such an entry-level point like this." Her narrowed ice-like eyes caught the blond's attention first as they firmly spanned over any unfortunate soul they could. They looked as cold as her rigid military demeanor, perfectly melding with her white bunned hair and mostly white clothes that looked more like a uniform. Even with personal touches like the red broach holding up her open jacket, exposed arms showing from the large opening in her sleeves, and garters fashioned into her white pants, she had a total professionalism about her that radiated superiority. If Naruto had to wager, he'd bet that the vibe she was exuding was well-earned, especially with the rapier resting at her side.

With her words still lingering in the minds of those gathered there, Naruto saw that no one reacted with much else besides looking at those around them, some more nervous than others. Even so, no one made to leave, each person having their own reasons for staying.

A short laugh was bellowed out by a man who then approached the white-haired woman's side. "Now, now, no need to be so serious, Ms. Schnee. We should be welcoming all of these children with open arms! Any one of them could become a fine defender of our kingdoms, so it might be better to tone down the boot camp mood you're setting."

Whoever this Schnee woman was turned her sharp gaze to the man as he stopped next to her with one arm locked behind his back and the other holding a proud fist at level with his chest.

"And you felt it necessary to interrupt when I was the one given the task of greeting the examinees, why? I know all academies aren't the same but is this how all the teachers conduct themselves at Beacon, Port?"

Port, a man who seemed to be budding into his elder years and wielding a hell of a gray mustache that covered his mouth completely, placed his hand on his moving belly as he laughed again. "While I can't speak for my colleagues, I'm still of the mind that they would prefer a less hostile approach." He brought his hand up back into the fist it was prior. "Besides, you weren't the sole person to bear the responsibility of meeting these kids. We only suggested you be the first up before I or another stepped in with our own twist, and what better way to get their young hearts and minds focused on the task at hand than easing them in with a warm introduction and perhaps an inspirational tale or two?!"

The woman eased back a little and doubtfully looked at the heavyset man in the burgundy suit. "Inspirational?" she said dully.

The elder man's face became a bit smug as he said, "Of course. We've all heard many a tale about the heroic deeds of the past to present day, and it is those very tales that brought drive to countless people destined to become huntsmen! No doubt some of the children here today are among those that have been touched by the very same thing!"

Port walked forward to the edge of the crowd and started addressing some of them individually. "How about you, young man? Ever hear about the brave and handsome hero who wrestled a beowolf and brought it back to his village in captivity with his bare hands?" The random teenager shook his head in the negative. "Ah, well how about you, future huntress? Has anyone ever regaled you with the tale of the man that brought down an entire hive of lancers using the queen's very own stinger?" Another no was his answer. "I see…" he said with a hint of disappointment.

Not willing to stop his attempts, he tried his hand on the next person. "Of course _someone_ has had to at least heard about- AH!" he yelled in a high-pitched cry, surprising everyone around. The one most surprised was the curious faunus girl he just tried to address. She had no idea what to do besides stare up at his frightened pose from her short stature, one of her mouse-like ears twitching as a few squeaky breaths of fear escaped Port's lips.

All was quiet once again until a couple of poorly contained snorts turned into full-blown laughter. The source happened to be Naruto as he held his stomach while bent over, letting out his audible joy without resistance. The sound of the blond was infectious as others joined in as well, not really focusing on what caused the reaction in the first place. Port gazed upon the amused crowd as the volume rose and straightened his posture before sighing.

Another group of students not showing him the respect he rightly deserved. What else was new?

Giving the crowd another once over he let out a few chuckles himself. Switching back to the proud pose he held before, he figured he'd just have to capture the minds of those fortunate enough to join his class at Beacon. Yes, they'd end up being the most prepared for the world ahead of them if he had anything to say about it!

A hand placed itself onto the huntsman's shoulder. Port turned to see a smile surrounded by a tannish-gray beard that connected to the thick mane upon the owner's head. "I suppose we all make our own unique impacts, Peter."

Port grunted in amusement. "Indeed we do, Leonardo. I guess it's your turn if you so wish?"

Watching everyone calm down, the bearded man named Leonardo stepped up. "If that's okay. We all have to make a case for our own schools, after all." Clearing his throat and almost timidly looking back at the children that now had his attention, he said, "With some of the theatrics out of the way, let me officially welcome you to this island. As I'm sure you're already aware, this is where you'll conduct a few examinations and possibly be given an invitation to one of the four great huntsmen academies, though that wholly depends on you. Unlike those put through combat schools to reach the same goal, the tests here are more open and shut in a much shorter time frame due to not overseeing your personal progress during the course of years. Obviously the skill level will vary on a grander scale, so if anyone is deemed unfit, particularly during the physical and potentially dangerous stages, they will be quickly removed and sent back for their own safety."

He paused to relax before gesturing to himself. "My name is Leonardo Lionheart, the headmaster and representative of Haven Academy." He smiled at some of the surprised looks he got. "Even if it's unusual given that I'm the only headmaster attending, I'm not exempt from handling the proceedings personally. Besides, seeing those that might one day become my students sounds much better than being cramped in an office. Thankfully, I managed to clear my schedule for the occasion." He stepped aside as he brought attention to the other two that had spoken before him. "Being given the honor of also representing their academies are Professor Peter Port from Beacon and Specialist Winter Schnee from Atlas. We will be the main judges of your talents throughout your exams, save for a few extra eyes to help move things along smoothly."

"What about Shade?!" exclaimed somebody from the middle of the crowd.

The headmaster's face became apologetic. "Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen events and the fact that they are rather understaffed at the moment, Shade Academy wasn't able to spare the person they had in mind. In their place are a few staff members from various Vacuo based combat schools that will oversee the testing along with us. They are currently preparing the testing areas and double checking to make sure everything is ready to go for you all."

"Now then!" Winter suddenly cut in as she stood in line with the other two. "Today will be for settling in and preparation while tomorrow will have the written exam and spars between yourselves. The next and final day's test will be kept hidden for now so don't bother asking. Behind us are a few tables to get checked in. We as representatives, along with some assistants, will see if you're officially supposed to be here, give you the necessary information regarding your lodgings, and what rules you'll be expected to follow during your stay."

"Once you're all caught up I suggest you take some of your free time to fully take in where you're standing!" Port exclaimed. "Those that appreciate at least some history will understand that this is a significant place, one where the ending of the Great War came about and peace was finally achieved through extensive negotiation. The idea of establishing academies for huntsmen in the first place was made during such negotiations so you might as well explore the roots of your desired profession. That's essentially why we hold these tests here, to try and hammer home the sacrifices made to make sure you and society as a whole are here today. Also, a little extra motivation doesn't hurt, does it? Now, off to your lines so we can get this thing started!"

The three reps then turned and made their way to their assigned spots for the check-in, exchanging some small talk all the while.

"Once again, I do believe you have a knack for giving speeches, Port," Lionheart commented.

"Ha!" Port retorted joyfully. "It's not as if I'm the only one. You two certainly left a mark of your own."

"I suppose," Lionheart stated as he dabbed some sweat off his brow from a handkerchief pulled from his brown coat. "I've never been one for public speaking, but it does come with the job."

"Whether or not we ingrained some sort of mark into their psyches remains to be seen," the white-haired woman stated, her heels clicking at a steady pace. "Regardless, every little action they all take must be examined with a critical eye. Accepting anyone but the best is not an option."

Port grunted. "It might do you some good to ease off some. They're kids. They all have plenty of growing up to do so we can't expect them to be perfect."

Winter's eyes glanced in Port's direction. "I'm not looking for perfection. I'm looking for competence. Standards must be adhered to, wouldn't you agree?"

"I don't think he meant standards shouldn't be followed, Winter," the headmaster said. "I'm sure that he wants you to not be too focused so that you _can_ focus, at least properly. If you're so intent on finding the negatives you'll end up missing the positives." The bearded man faced forward as they were almost at the various tables to get the students set up. "I'm sure you wouldn't have been negligent nor too strict regardless of our words, but this is your first time being sent to oversee these tests. No harm in trying to be on the same wavelength with each other."

"I'll keep that in mind," Winter replied as they separated to take their own stations.

Once it was noticed the reps were heading to their seats with the rest of the staff, the students started lining up wherever they could to get done as fast as possible. This led to some people getting jumbled in some parts, once again squeezing around Naruto before he could react and obscuring his vision from the front. He didn't mind all that much given his own desire to get past, but it was still annoying to have people constantly bumping into him.

Since he was at the front when they dispersed, it didn't take long for his turn at one of the tables to come, and as luck would have it he discovered he managed to end up in that military woman's line.

Once he stepped in front of her she, like with the previous candidates, said, "Name please, or if you have a scroll with the downloaded forms the process will be much quicker."

Wordlessly, Naruto nodded and gave her his scroll. With a practiced hand she took the device and inserted it into some little console plugged into the computer she had set up. A few clicks and beeping sounds later brought up his information onto the holographic screen for her to look at. The blond patiently watched as her eyes darted left to right and even took a few glances at him, probably confirming his physical appearance from the profile picture and description. He figured it wouldn't take much else from there but he got confused once he saw her eyes suddenly narrow and stare at whatever was on her screen for longer than he was comfortable with.

He felt a little intimidated when she shot her icy eyes at him and then back again to the screen.

"Uh, is something wrong or…?" Naruto asked.

She looked back at him with a neutral face, though that look in her eyes didn't stray away. "Under the voluntary section for apprenticeships or other professional instruction, it has you sponsored by Qrow Branwen. Is that true?"

Naruto looked back at her quizzically and arched a brow from the small amount of distaste he picked up from her saying Qrow's name. "What, you know him?"

"Please answer the question," she retorted professionally for the most part.

Naruto crossed his arms and kept the confused look on his face. "Uh, yeah? Black hair, big sword, heavy fondness for alcohol; pretty sure that's him."

"I see," she muttered and stared at the information again.

Naruto could practically feel the impatient eyes staring at his back and felt like he had to speed things along. "I'm still able to participate, right? What does he have to do with anything?"

"How long have you been under his tutelage?" she asked, ignoring his own questions.

"Does it matter?" Her silent stare made him roll his eyes, something he would have noticed she didn't quite appreciate if he kept his eyes locked onto hers for a split-second longer. "Only a few months," he answered, making her raise a regal brow.

"That's not very long all things considered."

Naruto shrugged.

"How did his training with you start?"

Well, couldn't give her a completely honest answer there. "He recruited me."

"Was this under any special circumstance?"

And the slight facade went on. "Besides introducing his inebriated self and vanishing into the night to contact me the next day, not really."

"Sounds like him," she quietly said to herself before continuing. "Learn anything particular under him besides the basics?"

Okay, he was starting to lose his own patience. Letting some annoyance bleed into his voice, he said, "Yeah, he taught me how to violently poke monsters extra hard until they go bye-bye."

Turning her attention to remove his scroll and clicking a few things on screen, she offhandedly replied with, "I see he taught you some of his manners."

The blond now looked flabbergasted. "Wait, my manne- what about yours?! I'm only trying to get through, lady! What's with the extra interrogation, dattebayo?!"

Winter pushed his scroll forward to give back to him, not reacting in the slightest to the blond's outburst. "That's Specialist Schn- dattebayo? Never mind. Anyway, your information checks out so simply follow the new instructions downloaded onto your scroll to find where you'll be staying. I also strongly advise you look over the rules listed to make sure your stay goes smoothly."

Naruto pocketed his scroll but still kept his eyes on the older woman as she patiently waited for the next person in line with her fingers interlocked on the table. Calmer, he asked, "Seriously, what was with the questioning?"

"Simple curiosity. I apologize if I seemed hostile or too nosey in any way. I meant nothing by it."

Ever the forgiving one, Naruto nodded and accepted her apology. The teen then recrossed his arms. "The hell happened between you and Qrow?"

He almost missed the minor agitation that appeared again in her eyes. "Nothing of note to bring up."

"I mean, I can see it."

"See what exactly?" she inquired.

"Him pissing other people off. He definitely has a knack at getting to you." That she could wholeheartedly agree with. "Don't know what's with the two of you, but he doesn't get much worse than being snarky- well, besides the physical punishments if you're in my shoes. Like, you'd be surprised how much damage your aura can take after smashing through multiple trees. Doesn't exactly feel good, but getting on his nerves too numbs it a little."

"Is that supposed to be defending him?" she asked honestly.

Naruto had to actually hum to himself as he thought about it. "I guess. Yeah, he's a prick when he wants to be, but I know he gives a damn deep down, especially about his family."

"Understandable, but that mouth of his has done its fair share under the wrong circumstances. Given his position, he certainly doesn't act like a huntsman of his caliber should, so it's not out of the ordinary for me to want to see if his student inherited the same tendencies."

The blond waved her off. "Fair enough. I mean, this one time he did tell me about how he and this- _oooh_ now it makes sense!" he exclaimed with a finger pointed at her.

"Excuse me?" she surprisingly questioned.

"You're-!"

"Oh will you please just go already?! The other lines are close to being half done and we've barely moved an inch!" an angry voice yelled behind Naruto.

Turning around, the blond instantly recognized the mohawked guy that sat next to him on the ship.

"Oh hey," Naruto said very unenthusiastically. Seeing the boy's sneer persist made Naruto roll his eyes again before he tightened his hold on his stuff and began walking towards a large open gate where students were filing through. "Well, later then," he continued as he walked by Winter.

The Atlesian soldier nodded his way at the farewell. She was about to ask the frustrated young man next in line the same basic questions as the others, but found herself go rigid when she heard Naruto shout, "Don't work too hard, ice queen!"

"That little…" she turned to see that Naruto was already happily walking away and almost out of sight. Facing back forward with a mental huff, she went on with her work.

"Of course you told him, Qrow…" she whispered with a twitch of her brow.

* * *

"And then you punched him, right? Please tell me you punched him."

"Yang, not everything can be solved with punching, though I'm not saying it wouldn't have been satisfying."

The young woman on the scroll's screen shook her head. "I'm gonna have to disagree with that. I can't remember any problem of mine that didn't get resolved from a love tap or two."

Naruto closed one of the dresser drawers in his cramped dorm room, finishing up with his unpacking. Standing back up to meet Yang's gaze from his scroll leaning against a lamp, he said, "I don't think trusting your memory is the best thing to base something off of." He then blinked curiously before rubbing his chin in thought. "Actually, with how you fight you've taken a bunch of hits to the head, so would losing your memory from those hits mean your problems could be forgotten? That'd mean because of getting punched your problems are solved because in your mind they're not even there in the first place…"

"Hey, don't think too hard and blow a gasket! You haven't even done the written test yet."

Silently cursing Tai for making him overthink some things since their study sessions, Naruto replied with, "Whatever, and no, I didn't punch him. It wasn't hard to ignore him, and I promised Ayame I wouldn't be getting into trouble anyway… at least not on purpose."

"That's true, I guess. Still lost a good story, though."

"So tragic," he replied emotionlessly. "Anyway, much happen since I left?"

The feisty girl looked back at Naruto amusedly. "Since a few hours ago? Yeah, _totally_ different world," she said sarcastically.

"Smartass."

"P-... potty… mouth…!" a very faint voice sounded in Yang's background.

Naruto blinked in confusion. "What was that?"

Some pep found its way onto Yang's visage. "Oh, that's just Ruby." The older sister turned her head to the side. "Rubes, you know you can't lay on the ground forever."

" _Eeevil_!" Naruto heard Ruby whine. He then watched as Yang calmly brought her scroll over to show Ruby flat on her back, a few scuffs on her innocent face and clothes. Ruby seemed to feel the scroll's presence approach right next to her face despite her eyes being closed. "Help…" she pleaded to Naruto pitifully.

Yang's hand came into the shot and Naruto saw her gently pat the black-haired girl's head. "The pain helps you learn, little sister." Ruby's groaned response faded in volume once Yang stood back up, walked away and put the camera back to her smiling face.

"No scythe?" Naruto questioned monotonously.

"No scythe," Yang confirmed happily. "I know you do well enough when you and her fight up close and weaponless, but sometimes you gotta show some tough love to help her grow. The clock's ticking on our time before Beacon so giving a little push doesn't hurt, or at least it doesn't for us."

"You know Ruby doesn't like it when you mention that around her."

"She's a big girl now so she can handle it. Don't think she's paying attention to much right now anyway and I'm also now in the kitchen." The fridge's light that reflected on her face confirmed her words. "So what do you have to do now?" she asked.

"Gonna go walk around for a while. I just needed to find my room in the dormitory so the rest of the day is doing whatever and resting. I guess it's mostly for those that traveled a lot further than me."

"Gotcha." With her water bottle now in hand, Yang said, "Have fun then, whiskers. Don't forget to call us if anything juicy happens, preferably something with violence."

"Such a cultured woman you are," Naruto replied as he closed and locked his door behind him while heading into the lightly crowded hall.

"You know it," she said cheekily before hanging up.

At that Naruto made his way through the hall and down some stairs to get outside. Once joining up with the rest of the populace in the streets, some examinees intermingled here and there in the excited crowd. He simply chose a direction and began walking.

Hands in his unzipped hoodie pockets and Hien hanging over his shoulder, Naruto calmly traveled down the sidewalk while looking around. The dorm building was near the edge of the city and from what he understood so were the tests themselves, having to use the outskirts and forest to operate safely, so he hadn't gotten a good feel for the size yet. Now that he was moving along and able to see some tall buildings on the horizon, he could see it was definitely bigger than Patch, not so surprising since the island was practically five times as big on the map.

Continuing on he took in whatever caught his eye, mentally noting possible stores and anything else interesting to check out on his way back. Having gone through a few blocks, he saw a lot of places for gifts and souvenirs, giving the place its validation of being a popular tourist destination for the history ingrained into it. Said history was actually the reason Naruto found himself walking more briskly down a sudden street because something unique came into view from the distance.

As he approached, the utter size of his target was becoming more apparent with each block. Honestly, he was pretty sure as long as no big building was in the way, he would be able to see it from any part of the city.

Walking in pace with some others heading in the same direction, he finally made it to a large and open courtyard. Now that he was there, he slowly walked up to the four massive statues in the center with a large fountain positioned smack dab in the middle of them. He noticed the large stream of water the fountain was shooting up nearly touched four hands that were resting on top of one another in unity, hands that Naruto saw came from the four people the dark metal was portraying. Each of them had their own styles of clothing and armor, and from what he could gather they all were befitting of how the kingdom's warriors of old used to dress for battle. While most and much smaller war memorials he had seen or heard of depicted brave soldiers charging into conflict or perhaps a single person proudly brandishing his weapon, this one didn't exude any feeling of violence whatsoever. In fact, the peaceful yet determined expressions molded onto their depicted faces, along with their sheathed swords and shields resting at their sides, gave off an impression of being freed from anguish and gaining an eagerness to keep that freedom intact. The worn out symbols of the four kingdoms engraved onto the weapons and armor enhanced the feeling even more, something Naruto could've sworn he was able to feel in that instance as he took in the last details.

"That's probably what the mustached guy meant by appreciating the place," the blond whispered while still dazedly looking up.

"It's certainly a wonderful sight, isn't it?" an excited voice suddenly exclaimed _very_ close to his ear.

"What the-!" Naruto jumped and quickly spun around, hitting his shoulder into whoever was right behind him.

"Ah!" a female sounded from being knocked backward.

In a panic Naruto reached out and grabbed one hand with both of his own, stopping the person from falling midway while bending forward to keep his own balance.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Naruto looked up and met a set of unperturbed green eyes with his own blue.

"Sal _u_ tations!" the orange-haired girl cheerfully exclaimed, waving her free hand in greeting.

"Uh…" Naruto muttered, confused and thinking about a couple of things in that small instance. First, why was this girl suddenly so joyful as she hung stiffly above the ground from his grip? Secondly, he was definitely digging the color of her short and curly hair. "He- hello?"

"Hello!" she replied with enthusiasm.

"You, uh, doin' okay?" he asked calmly, seeing her body slowly sway back and forth from him adjusting his hold.

"Why, I'm perfectly fine! Thank you for your concern!"

"Need me to pull you up?"

The girl innocently hummed. "I'm sure I'd be just fine carrying my own weight, but assistance would be welcomed."

"Um, okay then." With that, Naruto eased the teen back to her feet.

"Thank you," she said with a seemingly ever-present smile on her freckled face, straightening the skirt end of her gray and green overalls shortly after.

"No problem." She didn't respond and continued to patiently stare at him. Not really knowing how to react, the blond tried to break the silence. "Sooo what's your name?"

Her expression grew a little excited. "Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you! What is yours?"

"Naruto. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I'm fine. No harm done."

"That's good. Why were you so close behind me anyway?"

"Oh, I had previously observed the monument for the first time a few minutes ago. I saw you curiously walk up and wanted to see if you would be as mesmerized as I was."

Naruto raised a brow. "Why?"

"I thought it would be interesting."

"Uh, was it?"

"Indeed! Your facial markings in particular made it more unique and enjoyable."

Well, that wasn't weird at all. "Well... glad to help, I guess." He eyed the statues again. "So it's your first time here too, huh? You gonna take the entrance exams?"

She shook her head. "Not exactly. I've only traveled here to observe certain parts of the tests to become more acquainted with actual people in live combat."

He looked back at her. "You going to be a huntress?"

She nodded happily in determination.

"Then why aren't you participating?" She seemed his age, unless she was actually a year or two younger and would have to wait for her chance.

"That's because I will be attending the academy in Atlas this coming semester."

"How do you have a spot if you aren't familiar with people fighting?"

She suddenly became tense. "Um, well, I am a tiny bit, but that is very limited in variety. It's not set yet but my attendance is almost nothing but assured, but- it's just that- um…"

Seeing her jovial face switch to being worried, he said, "Hey, it's okay. You don't need to tell me if it's too personal."

"You aren't upset?" she asked, nervously looking up at him.

"Wait, why would I be? You're entitled to your own business. We barely met and I think I've been the only one asking questions anyway, so sorry if I seemed I was interrogating you or something." Great, right after being annoyed from being questioned earlier he was probably doing the same to someone else.

"Oh, you weren't!" she assured. "In fact, I have quite enjoyed the conversation so far! Casually socializing this much with someone I'm not familiar with is something I've been wanting to experience for some time."

"This much…?" Naruto whispered to himself. "You realize it's only been a few minutes since we started talking, right?"

And there he went, going back to asking questions.

"I do."

 _How sheltered is this girl?_ he thought. "You don't get out much, do you?"

She looked sad at that. "I don't."

An uncomfortable silence grew between the two with Penny looking more interested in the ground.

Naruto mentally flinched before schooling himself. Well, he'd be damned if he didn't at least try to cheer her up. It was him that brought down her mood so suddenly anyway.

"Well, welcome to the outside world then, Penny," he said, trying to sound more upbeat.

"Pardon?" she asked while curiously bringing her gaze back up.

Naruto turned a little to his side and gestured with his head. "You gotta make the most outta the trip, right? C'mon, I was going to walk around for the next little while so you can join me if you want."

The Uzumaki swore he'd never seen so much excited disbelief suddenly appear on someone's face like it did on Penny's.

"You…" she started hesitantly, "you're inviting me to embark on a social excursion with you?"

"Uh, people normally call it 'hanging out' if that's what you mean. Y'know, something friends do to kill time and have fun?"

Holy hell, her eyes lit up so much at that moment. Wait, if he wasn't mistaken, he could've sworn he actually saw some literal light appear in her irises...

"We… we could be… friends?"

Naruto shrugged. "Don't see why not."

Some worry entered his mind when saw her look down and appear to shake throughout her entire body, though that feeling mostly disappeared when she lunged forward with a happy shout and wrapped her arms around his torso.

 _Holy shit, she has some strength in her!_ he mentally exclaimed as he practically felt his ribs cracking.

" _Sen_ sational!" she shouted in utter joy. Before Naruto could react she ended the embrace and stepped back, letting him breath out in relief. Not even particularly directed at him, she started fidgeting in place while looking down in thought and said, "Oh my goodness, an actual friendship! I can't wait to tell father about this!" She blinked in realization. "Oh, maybe I shouldn't given the circumstances. I would probably have to change some details but that wouldn't work for obvious reasons…" she trailed off quietly to herself.

"Obvious reasons?" Naruto asked, lightly massaging one of his ribs.

Penny returned from her mental world. "Oh! It's nothing." She suddenly turned and rushed into his personal space again. "Now, shall we go then?" she stated excitedly.

Naruto eyed her curiously. Her personality seemed to be quite erratic when it wanted to be. Nodding, he said, "Yeah, we can go down the street on the other side of the monument."

"Fantastic!" she immediately grabbed hold of his right elbow and near violently urged him in his given direction.

Almost tripping over himself from the unexpected action, he exclaimed, "There's no rush, Penny!"

His voice stopped her instantly, making her let go and turn to him slightly red-faced. "My apologies, I got too excited. Social cues aren't necessarily something I excel at yet unfortunately."

Naruto stretched his afflicted arm and grinned sheepishly. "No worries. We'll probably have to work on that so please take it easy. From the feel of it, strength isn't going to be a problem for you to become a huntress, but save it for when it's actually needed."

She smiled at the small compliment. "Thank you." Her gaze pointed at the appendage he was loosening up. "You weren't uncomfortable by me grabbing your arm, were you? Was that indecent in this situation?"

Wow, she really wasn't kidding at being socially inept to an extent.

"I mean, I didn't really mind but we-"

"Great!" And just like that, she seemed to forget their previous words as she once again grabbed hold of Naruto's arm and hastily marched deeper into the city.

Ignoring some stares they got and the feeling of his arm about to pop out of its socket, the blond resigned himself to his fate. He might as well let her have her fun.

"Oh, I can't wait to build on this new companionship!" she continued while simultaneously checking both sides of the street before crossing. "You'll have to tell me all about yourself! I hadn't specifically envisioned the scenario of a boy being my first friend that much so, generally speaking, I assume painting our nails and cute boys aren't subjects you'd be interested in?"

"Yeah, not exactly my cup of tea…"

"Oh, do you prefer to talk about tea?"

"That's just an expression, Penny."

She dully stared ahead into space while still trudging on for a few seconds. "So it is!" she eventually exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Yeah, they'd definitely have to work on that.

* * *

"I never have this much fun back home!" Penny exclaimed with glee, a bag of souvenirs and other random trinkets in hand as they walked.

Next to her Naruto only had a soda can in one hand with the other resting in his jacket pocket. "Good to hear." And it was, even though they had only walked around like he said and stopped by several stores and stands. Despite the simplicity of the activity, Penny couldn't get enough. Even the various things she bought were quickly piled on to purchase simply because they represented the memory of today if her words were to be believed. The only thing that even had a smidge of extra effort to pick out was the pink bow now placed on the back of her head, though that was mostly on the Uzumaki because Penny couldn't pick a color and asked him to decide.

Sadly, there weren't any orange ones.

Naruto himself hadn't gotten anything yet, but he did make a mental note to revisit some places before he went back to Vale, otherwise Ruby's sad and disappointed stare would probably kill him.

If not that, then Yang's fists would for making her sister even remotely upset.

"Earnestly, thank you for spending time with me, Naruto. You possibly had something else in mind, yet you wasted the daylight on me," she said while taking a peek at the orange horizon, her smile never wavering.

The blond brought the can down from his mouth. "Don't worry about it. I didn't have anything special going on anyway, and meeting new people is always fun, dattebayo."

The freckled girl held back a giggle. "That's the seventh time."

Naruto clicked his tongue good-naturedly. "Have you really been keeping track of how many times I've let that slip?"

"Couldn't help it," she replied happily.

"Whatever, we all have our quirks."

"I suppose we do."

"Anyway, at least we're almost at the dorm before dark. You didn't have anywhere to be, did you? I don't know where you're staying but if you're with anyone I don't think they'd want you walking around at night alone."

She hesitated before replying. "Um, no. I'm not supposed to be anywhere in particular." Right after she said that a hiccup escaped her mouth.

Glancing at her, Naruto lifted the can up. "Need a sip?"

She quickly waved him off. "No thank you. I'm fine."

"Alright then. If you want, we can- hm?" He stopped walking, making Penny do the same.

"Naruto?" Penny saw his gaze fixated on something and followed his line of sight. Once she did she saw he was looking at a girl quietly sitting against a tree in a small park. With a black rectangular sheath resting next to her, she was packing away what looked like a book and her scroll. With the sun setting she supposed there was no longer enough natural light to read. "Is she one of the people here for the tests?" she asked.

Naruto blinked and brought his attention back to Penny. "Yeah, she sat next to me on the ship over here, though we got separated once we landed." Noticing something else in his peripheral to his right, he said, "Oh hey, we're here." Somehow he missed the park right behind the dormitory when he arrived earlier, but it's not like he walked around the entire building in the first place to discover it.

Penny kept an intense gaze on the dark-haired girl as she stood and dusted off her pants. With a small widening of her green eyes and a tilt of her head, she said, "Not saying for absolute certain, but for conversation's sake do you think she felt more comfortable sitting next to you if you were there first?"

Naruto looked at her weirdly. "That's kinda random. Why do you say that?"

"Faunus generally like to stick together because of the scorn they sometimes get from certain humans. It's unfortunate but still true enough to make a social impact. Your facial markings might have made her mistakenly identify you as one too. I recently read something on the subject so the thought came to mind."

"Wait, 'too'? You saying that she-"

"There you are!" a familiar voice sternly said behind them.

Naruto jumped a tad but Penny seemed to recognize the person who spoke because a wave of fear appeared on her face.

They both turned around, the orange-haired girl more warily, and witnessed Winter marching her way down the sidewalk towards them.

"The hell did I do now?" Naruto dully asked with crossed arms.

Winter stopped in front of them with a narrowed expression at Naruto. "Not you, but you're not off the hook completely." She switched targets and her eyes locked onto Penny, causing her to shrink in on herself like a caught child. " _You_."

"You know ice queen?" Naruto asked Penny, making her momentarily break her fearful expression while Winter glared at him.

"Why are you referring Ms. Schnee as ice queen?" she replied innocently.

"That's not the point," Winter cut in and zeroed on Penny once again. "Where have you been? You were explicitly told to not wander off during your stay, and yet you made me worry for hours! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Penny guiltily met the woman's icy gaze. "I wanted to see the memorial," she meekly responded.

Winter shook her head disappointedly. "I was going to escort you to it personally once my duties were finished for the day. That was the original plan, but even after discovering your abrupt absence you weren't at the memorial when I went to find you. Am I already supposed to lose faith in your word if you couldn't even keep your promise on your first day here?"

"N-no! I mean- I-I'm so very sorry!" Penny blurted out before quieting back down. "I know I promised, but this is my first time outside of Atlas and I couldn't help myself. I wasn't going to be long and would've returned before you were done but…" she trailed off while sneaking a glance at Naruto.

The Atlesian soldier let out a 'hmph' as she looked at the blond. "I see, but that isn't much of an excuse, Penny. Staying out longer than expected after already disregarding your word doesn't help in the slightest, so maybe it would be best to place you under constant watch from now on. I hope you understand that your father won't be happy when he hears about this."

The freckled teen expressed a worried whine as she nervously locked her hands in front of her and bowed her head. So deep into her mind about her father's reaction she almost jumped when she felt Naruto's hand place itself on her shoulder with a reassuring squeeze.

"Um, Specialist?" he stated to catch Winter's attention.

"Yes?" she replied stoically, though the barest amount of surprise entered her eyes as he actually addressed her by rank. She figured he'd have forgotten that by now.

"I don't know if my asking will really do much, but can you let her off easy? She really didn't mean to cause any trouble. I'm the one that kept her out late too."

"Naruto…" Penny whispered to herself.

"What she intended holds little weight, and you had no prior knowledge of what she was supposed to be doing so there's no fault of your own. Her _original_ intentions were to do as I say for her safety's sake, but clearly that doesn't mean much to her."

Curiosity got the better of him. "Why does she have to listen to you?" he asked bluntly.

Sounding like it wasn't the first time she answered a question of the same nature, she said, "That's classified information and doesn't concern you."

Wow, she was really by the book, both in language and tone. Thankfully his fondness for the Atlesian forces mostly focused on the weaponry and tech. Current him would probably shoot the alternative him that pursued that kind of pure soldier-esque lifestyle.

Naruto discarded the thought and continued. "Look, from what I gathered Penny hasn't really had much freedom. Don't know why, but that's apparently none of my business. Still, would it kill ya to overlook one tiny mistake? Just sum it up as a learning experience or something."

"If she is to properly represent Atlas, then she has to be able to follow very basic orders. Who's to say that showing such leniency now wouldn't encourage other instances of insubordination in the future?"

"C'mon, I doubt she'd go against orders a hundred times more important than this."

"Could you know that for certain? Give them an inch and they'll take a mile as the saying goes."

"She was only having innocent fun. No danger whatsoever!"

"Tragedy has struck during less."

Damn, she was an annoying nut to crack.

"U-um, Ms. Schnee?" Penny eventually stated. Seeing Winter's attention back to her, she held her hand up to her to present something.

"What is this?" she inquired after being given a small metallic object.

Adjusting the shopping bag she had gotten the item out of, Penny calmly replied with, "It's a snowflake charm. I saw it on display at one of the stands Naruto took me to and it reminded me of you. I wasn't sure if you cared for such things but I still felt like I should get it because you allowed me to accompany you here. I would've given it to you at a later date since I was worried at being found out today, but obviously that doesn't matter anymore…"

Winter's eyes almost unnoticeably softened as she silently stared at the gift. Unbeknownst to both teens, the action reminded her of her little sister doing something similar years ago.

Seeing her guard go down for the first time since they started talking, Naruto decided to take advantage, but he did take a fraction of a moment to consider the kind of person he was dealing with.

He had to go with the nuclear option.

"If you let this go I'll give you dirt on Qrow."

 _That_ had her attention. Her face slowly craned towards him, her visage showing the most emotion since her reprimanding arrival. "I beg your pardon?"

Penny looked surprised at the sudden interest in Winter's icy gaze. Perhaps she'd even go as far as to say there was downright _eagerness_ intermingled in there.

"You heard me," Naruto replied smugly with a foxy smirk.

The older woman controlled the small amount of emotion that broke through as she took in Naruto's offer. "Exactly what qualifies as 'dirt'?"

"Pretty much anything that he wouldn't want you specifically to know."

"I see." Naruto couldn't observe it from her physically, but he could practically feel the mental battle the soldier was having with herself. From what little interaction they'd had since he arrived, along with whatever bits Qrow let loose about her when he had more than several drinks and felt like ranting, he knew she wasn't one to deviate from protocol and was the epitome of a perfect servicewoman in the Atlesian military.

"Is there information for possible indictment in a court of law?" She wasn't asking to dig up something that serious. It was more a question to gauge what Naruto had to give, but that's not saying she wouldn't welcome awareness of anything troublesome enough to create concern for her and her superiors.

"Nah, more along the lines of things he doesn't know that I know. Usually, he doesn't care what he says in front of me, but I guess there's some info that some of my… sources felt I deserved to know because of their spite towards him."

"Sources?"

"Yep. Totally legit." The process of acquiring one of these sources actually taught Naruto a valuable lesson.

Don't fuck with Taiyang's blender, otherwise he might become loose-lipped about the skeletons in your closet.

Naruto saw her go silent again as her mental cogs returned to turning. "Why give away sensitive information on the person you trained under?" she eventually asked.

Naruto squinted at her with a fox-like expression. "It's Qrow."

"Fair enough."

"Sooo?" Naruto questioned with rising confidence.

"I'm still thinking."

Naruto cheerfully wrapped an arm around Penny's shoulder to pull her to him, making her squeak in surprise. "C'mon! How can you punish this face?"

After a moment of confusion for both women, Penny caught on, and after mouthing 'oh', she looked at Winter with a big fake smile. It didn't seem that convincing, though, as Penny tried too hard to show her pearly whites, forcing her eyes closed.

Winter didn't look to be any more swayed from the cartoonish grin, but Naruto kept up the negotiations after letting go of Penny.

Backup nuclear option it was.

"Well, ice queen, I didn't want to use this _buuut_ …" the whiskered teen dragged on while exaggeratingly looking to the side.

"Use what?" she inquired with hands on her hips.

Naruto's eyes dramatically locked onto Winter's. "The night of a thousand drinks."

The blond often thought of the skill gap between someone such as himself and those who'd already gone through the grind to become a professional huntsman, but it was moments like this, where Winter practically teleported with rapier drawn and pointed at his face, that he figured he still had a lot of growing to do.

With her blade nearly touching Naruto right between his eyes, she dangerously uttered, "What do you know of that?"

Naruto mentally gulped and fought back a nervous sweat. "S-sources." Technically it was the same source but it was linked to the second lesson Naruto learned not too long after the first.

Don't repeatedly insult Taiyang's food.

"And for what purpose do you bring that up?" Winter continued with an unwavering glare while Penny watched slack-jawed and concerned.

Naruto held strong. "Nothing yet, but you wouldn't want that getting out there, right? And over something so small?"

"Do you really find blackmailing your superior over something so small wise?" she retorted with his own words.

"Okay, to seriously answer your question from earlier today, maybe I did learn something particular from Qrow…" That didn't exactly mean it was a positive thing, but he couldn't spend that much time around the man without _something_ rubbing off on him.

The standoff went on for a few more tense moments before Winter eventually sighed and backed off. This wasn't worth the effort. If she wasn't done with this soon then the others would begin to wonder what was taking her so long.

She sheathed her blade, making Naruto breath in relief, and locked her hands behind her back. Looking at Penny, she asked, "I take it you've learned your lesson?"

The girl couldn't have nodded any faster.

"Very well. However, another little slip-up and there won't be anything to stop proper discipline. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, thank you!" Penny happily exclaimed and, without warning, rushed forward to hug the older woman.

Letting the surprise pass, Winter awkwardly patted the girl's back a couple of times before clearing her throat as they separated. "I do expect the information offered on our _esteemed_ colleague at some point before you leave the island," she addressed to Naruto.

"Deal's a deal," he replied easily. It wasn't anything seriously damaging anyway. In fact, he'd bet that Qrow would applaud the action if it wasn't about him.

It could make for a good laugh someday, and he was sure his fighting skills would be up to par if the huntsman decided to hold a grudge.

"Then I suppose we should be off, Penny. You go on ahead. It would be good to show the others that you're okay."

"Yes, ma'am." She turned to Naruto and happily waved goodbye with a grateful smile. "Thank you for today, Naruto."

Naruto returned it with a grin of his own. "Don't be a stranger. We can hang out again whenever we're both free if you want, dattebayo."

"I'd really enjoy that. Oh, and eighth time." She giggled before walking off with a spring in her step.

"Of course that'd have to be done with permission granted," Winter added. Before he could say something back she gave him one last warning glare. "I don't think I need to explain what would happen if you spread information you're not supposed to know."

"They'd never find my body?" he calmly replied with a squint.

She nodded while tapping her rapier's grip.

"Eh, not the first time I've been threatened with that, ice queen."

"I'm sure," she said with an eye roll. "Good evening, and get proper rest for tomorrow." And with that, she left and followed Penny's path down the street.

With nothing else to do, Naruto held his hands behind his head and walked to the dorm entrance. "Welp, that was fun." After entering the building and making his way back to his room, he got comfortable and lazily plopped onto his bed.

He was considering a quick nap but a text from Tai changed that idea.

Once reading the message, Naruto groaned. He sent a message back before reluctantly opening several familiar notes on his scroll.

He just _had_ to promise the father that he'd do some more studying for the written test in the morning.

With a practiced yet bored tone, he recited, "One of the biggest turning points in the Faunus Rights Revolution include…"

* * *

"-have no more than one hour to complete all of the given problems. If any are left blank or unfinished you will be marked down for it."

Naruto reluctantly listened as some staff member continued to rattle off all of the boring rules for the exam. He knew that his entire stay wouldn't be entirely filled with monster fights and other forms of excitement, but he still dreaded anything that was pure academics and no action.

He'd have to get used to it but that didn't mean he was gonna like it.

With his head leaning on his propped hand, he listened on.

"Once we're all done here, you'll get a break for lunch and move on to the physical portion that will take place well into the afternoon. Remember, no cheating. Believe me when I say we _will_ be keeping an eye on all of you. You may begin."

The few dozen people in one of the many rooms in the testing building dove right into the prepared packets in front of them. Naruto would've as well if he didn't skim through the test once he saw the questions on the first page. Finished looking through them all he went back to the front and gazed spitefully at it, ignoring the sounds of busy pencils around him.

There were no multiple choice problems.

 _This is off to a great start…_ he thought unamused.

* * *

(Omake - The Guardian's Origins)

Practically every person on Remnant had been enamored with the tale of the four maidens at some point in their lives. In fact, the story of how the four sisters became blessed with the powers given to them by the old hermit was used as a model for many parents to teach their children character.

Helping others simply because you are able to do so. Whether or not the story of the maidens helped ingrain that quality in many aspiring hunters can't be said for certain, but there's no doubt in them playing a role in some lives.

With such a heartwarming lesson to go along with the people and setting of the story, there's no surprise that people wouldn't give other unimportant and little details a second or even a first thought at all.

These bits of unimportance could include various things, such as the type of wood the furniture was made of, the amount of available clothing in the hermit's closet, or maybe perhaps…

…if the wizard owned a spool of dark yarn?

Of course, the possibility of the wizard owning such an item at the time of the story would only be known by the wizard himself and perhaps the maidens. And if he did have such a spool of yarn, there's no questioning the likelihood of him blessing it and other objects he owned with his magic to keep their physical conditions fair and protected, though that would've most likely taken place after his property was spruced up by his lovely guests.

And if that was a reasonable possibility then another would be, during one of their yearly visits, the wizard giving one of the maidens that yarn to pass along to someone in need during her travels with her sisters.

From there, hypothetically speaking of course, there would always be a chance of that yarn not being used by the person it was given to or perhaps even being plain forgotten or lost. And if _that_ was a reasonable probability, then it isn't outside the realm of imagination to think that the yarn kept its existence the same as it was within the wizard's home, constantly stuck in a cycle of being passed along or found for days, months, years, centuries, maybe even more than a millennium!

If that series of events over that length of time was believable, then who's to say that spool of yarn couldn't end up...

...in the possession of a young girl in the middle of Vale?

"Done!" Ayame exclaimed in glee, a tired yet happy smile plastered on her ten-year-old face as she finished the last part of her project.

"Oh? That took longer than I thought it would tonight," an amused Teuchi said when he approached his daughter sitting in one of the booths, empty like the others since closing the restaurant a couple of hours prior. He was still in his dirty work clothes from cleaning the kitchen while Ayame was comfortable in her pajamas, having worked by herself well past her bedtime.

He'd let it slide this once considering what it was for.

"That's because I had to make sure I got the eyes right, dad!" she retorted with a lighthearted whine.

He chuckled. "I know, sweetheart, I know. Let me see." Once she proudly presented the object almost entirely made from black fabric, he laughed.

"What's so funny?! I worked really hard on it!" she exclaimed with a pout.

Calming himself, he reached over to ruffle Ayame's hair. "I know you did, and it shows. It's just that it has a funny face."

She pushed his hand away. "So? Did you have to laugh like that?"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Huh?"

"When people laugh they're happy, right?"

"I guess, but some people can laugh after being mean too," she retorted.

"That's true, but in this case it made me happy. If I can be happy from just looking at it, then…?"

"Then?" she echoed in confusion.

"Then I'm sure Naruto receiving it as a gift would only make him that much happier," he finished with a smile.

Her eyes lit up. "Can I give it to him now, dad?"

He hummed. "It's pretty late already, honey."

"Please? You know he's probably reading comics with a flashlight again anyway!"

Teuchi shook his head with grin still in place. "Okay, okay, go ahead. If he's cranky because you woke him up then he's your problem."

Without hesitation the little girl jumped from her seat, accidentally knocking over a few knitting supplies, and scampered through the dining area and towards the stairs with bare feet. With Teuchi now behind her and watching with mirth, she started climbing up and yelled, "Naruto! I have something for you!" After almost tripping on the last step and heading toward the little blond's room, she gave one last look at the sleeping cap she made for him.

"Don't worry, Naruto. Those weird nightmares aren't going to be a problem anymore," she whispered determinedly.

* * *

 **AN: The omake references the one in chapter 3 fyi.**

 **And before you say it, I know the pacing is kinda slow, but I just can't help myself with certain details, especially when new characters are introduced. That being said, I do hope to get things moving along. This wouldn't have been much of a problem in the first place if I updated quickly like I wanted to, but the mentioned reasons at the very top got in the way... Whatever, hope to get the action going in the next one.**

 **I also did everything myself. _Totally_ didn't have Fan-Of-FictionX01 virtually slap me with corrections. Nope. None whatsoever. Y'all can't prove anything...**

 **Anyway, please let me know what you guys think, like how you felt about this one, where you think it's going or pretty much whatever else.**

 **Like always, thanks for reading.**

 **Later!**


	7. First Battle of Many

**AN: I swear I enjoy writing this... despite the update speed. Whatever, enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: First Battle of Many**

"So did you do well?" Penny happily asked.

Naruto shrugged as he took a sip of water. Setting his bottle down, he said, "Well enough, I guess. Pretty sure I got most of it so I'm not too worried."

"That's good," she replied with a gentle smile.

"Mhmm. Oh, and Penny?"

"Yes?"

"Why is ice queen sitting with us?" he asked with a gesture of his head to the side.

Winter eyed the blond with little emotion from her own space at the round outdoor table. She gripped her coffee cup as she said, "You do realize I can hear you?"

"I'd be worried if you couldn't," he replied easily before taking a bite of his sandwich, ignoring the small roll of her eyes as she sipped her beverage.

"Well," Penny started, "even though there's not going to be any punishment for my negligence yesterday, I will be watched more closely."

"I thought that wasn't going to happen?" Naruto retorted.

"She won't be constantly escorted around like I threatened, but keeping an eye on her when I can spare the time is a reasonable compromise," Winter answered.

"So you didn't just want to enjoy my company again?" Naruto whined at the older woman in fake disappointment. Penny giggled while the soldier didn't waver from her neutral demeanor.

"As enjoyable as it has been, no," she monotonously jabbed back.

"Eh, you'll learn to love me."

"I'm sure."

Finishing off his food, Naruto wiped his hands, leaned back into his seat, and pointed a thumb to the only other occupied seat at the table. "What about her?" he asked bluntly.

Three sets of eyes turned to the young woman also under the shade of the lunch table umbrella. Dark skin, blue eyes, short navy blue hair and a golden marking on her forehead were the most eye-catching features on her. Similar to Penny, her apparel was a bit modest with a blue skirt above her white leggings, a buttoned down grayish-white blouse, elbow-length fingerless black gloves, and a blue beret to top it off.

Feeling multiple gazes on her, the girl calmly met them in kind after turning her eyes away from the watch on her left wrist. "Do you require something from me?" she asked the three in a professional and near-monotone voice.

"Yeah, who are you?" Naruto replied, earning a flick to his ear from Winter.

"Learn some tact," she ordered as Naruto rubbed the reddening area while looking at the older woman accusingly.

"Not my fault there weren't any introductions, dattebayo."

The girl cleared her throat and got Naruto's attention again. "If you must know, my name is Ciel Soleil," she stated politely with a tip of her head.

Naruto nodded back. "Alright then, I'm-"

"Naruto Uzumaki. Seventeen. Hails from Vale. Status: Under assessment," she listed off.

With jaw still ajar, Naruto looked at her with near emotionless confusion. After a few seconds of silence, he quickly shook his head and got his facial features under control. "Yeah, well, what's my favorite food?" he challenged.

"Ramen," she answered quickly, maintaining solid eye contact.

"Huh…" he eerily muttered in reply while leaning back into his chair. He looked at Penny and Winter before asking, "Okay, should I be scared or something right now? Am I on some super secret watchlist or whatever?"

"Classified," was Winter's calm reply as she contently took another sip of her coffee, the briefest hint of amusement glinting in her eyes.

"Don't read too much into it," the blue-eyed girl stated, regaining his attention. "Finding that last piece of information wasn't difficult. A simple search of your name online, specifically from news sources around Vale, had an article featuring a ramen restaurant with you in one of the pictures. Coming to the conclusion of linking their main dish to your preference wasn't an unreasonable guess."

Naruto slowly blinked at the explanation. Oh yeah, a local paper did do a little story on them involving some sort of food critic, though that was a few years ago. "Why were you researching me?" he questioned skeptically.

"Given your recent and possible future interactions with Penny, I deemed it necessary to determine if you posed any sort of threat."

Naruto paused, his mind still wary. "Again, why?"

"Classified," she mirrored Winter's response.

Naruto rolled his eyes before placing his elbow on the table and casually resting his chin on his hand. "And? Did you find anything to cause concern for sweet little Penny here?"

"Like I said before, that's still under assessment, but the likelihood of you being a danger is currently quite low."

Naruto looked at Penny exasperatedly with a large raise of his brow. Her only response was to smile at him encouragingly, as if Ciel's words were supposed to be some sort of great news.

The blond turned his attention on everyone. "Seriously, can anyone please tell me about this weird military secrecy crap?"

Penny looked like she was going to gladly say something until Winter motioned her to stop. "Don't," the woman stated simply.

Penny blinked innocently. "But he said please," she countered.

As if such a response has been routine before, Winter replied with, "Saying please doesn't mean you're obligated to follow through with someone's request. You have to take multiple things into account such as the topic involved and the context in which it's in."

"Oh, I see. My mistake."

Naruto observed the interaction with minor incredulity, his curiosity still not satisfied. He sighed and crossed his arms. "Whatever, as long as I'm not suddenly tied up and thrown in the back of an unmarked van, I don't really care that much, dattebayo."

"That specific consequence remains to be seen, but maintaining your current risk level shouldn't be difficult," Cien said.

The blond looked at her weirdly. He honestly couldn't tell if that was supposed to be meant in a humorous way or not. "Okay, really, who talks like that? That's even worse than ice queen. Are you a brainwashed sleeper agent or something?"

Penny tried to ease her friend. "Naruto, she-"

"What is your prime directive?!" the blond dramatically exclaimed with a pointed finger at the beret-wearing girl.

"Classified," she said once again without wavering, causing the blond to groan and suddenly plant his head onto the table with an audible thud.

"Ow…" they heard him say silently.

He probably should've made sure his headband was actually on his head and not around his neck.

Penny giggled while Winter did let some amusement show as she gently shook her head. Even Ciel, not once breaking her no-nonsense expression, had the barest upturning at the corners of her mouth, though that disappeared when she took a peek at her wristwatch.

Looking at Winter, she said, "Ma'am, the lunch hour is near its end."

"Very well." Standing from her seat with the other two following her example, she glanced at Naruto and said, "You should get going to the next testing area." The proceeding clicks of her heels on the pavement were already putting distance between him and her as she continued. "Remember, I and the others will be watching closely so please don't disappoint."

Naruto sat back up while tenderly rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, I know," he replied nonchalantly.

"Good luck, Naruto!" Penny called out to him as she followed Winter, Ciel giving him a simple nod as she diligently did the same.

"Don't need luck!" he exclaimed back confidently.

Facing forward, Penny smiled and cheerfully locked her arms behind her back as she walked. "Are you looking forward to watching Naruto fight?" she asked Winter.

"I'll admit I'm interested in seeing the full scope of his abilities." Having Qrow as his teacher would do that, especially given the history between the two hunters.

"So you'll give him an invitation if he does well, right?" Penny replied eagerly.

"Of course, but that's _if_ he shows the necessary degree of skill. Anyone fortunate enough to be considered for Atlas Academy must be held to the right standard with potential to grow."

Penny eyed Ciel. "What about you? Don't you think it would be fun to have him on our team?"

Just the thought of teaming up with her new friend was filling her with giddiness! In the back of her mind there was also the glaring fact she hadn't seen him fight yet and this was all under the assumption she could get him on her team, but that's neither here nor there. In her view, failure wasn't an option for the whiskered teen and everything was smooth sailing once all was said and done.

"I'm of the same stance as the Specialist, though having met him personally will naturally make me focus on his performance more than the others," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone, completely ignoring Penny's inquiry about fun.

"Great!" She apparently didn't mind her answer.

To Penny, that might as well have been a resounding yes.

* * *

"This is so awesome!" Naruto excitedly whispered to himself from his seat. Around him the other competitors intently watched the fight taking place, everyone guarded by the protective glass set up in the small stadium.

Looking around he saw that almost all of the seats were occupied by prospective students itching for the chance to prove their worth. With his best guesstimation he'd say there were a few hundred spaces in the dome-like building in total, a reasonable amount for the expected attendees every year, he supposed. He did, however, also take notice of what looked like a private viewing box overlooking the arena from a better vantage point, having been set up around five meters higher than the last row of seats at his back. He had even spotted Winter and Penny when he looked at its viewing windows so he guessed that's where all the representatives were at.

Hearing the people around him suddenly sound a collective 'oooh', followed by a buzzer and automated words, he turned his attention back to the current fight. From the looks of things, one of the guys had knocked the other out of bounds, eliminating him and ending the bout. It seemed like a pretty rough ending since the loser was slow to get up and was also leaning against the wall with obvious cracks in it above him.

The blond saw the larger male that won the fight sheath a short ax before saying something to himself and thumping his chest a couple of times in celebration, obviously excited at his victory before walking back to the tunnel he first emerged from. While the other competitor was being helped to his own exit by a couple of staff members, a robotic female voice rang out from the speaker system.

"With the conclusion of the 8th exhibition match, will the following examinees please make their way to the designated waiting areas as shown on screen: Lilac Chevalier, Gris Cultro, Naruto Uzumaki, and Blake Belladonna."

"Blake?" Naruto excitedly said, ignoring the voice repeating itself as he saw pictures of himself, Blake, and two others he didn't recognize pop up onto the four-screened jumbotron above the arena.

Seeing the letter 'B' under his and Blake's picture, Naruto quickly walked down the steps to the front and followed the sign pointing to where he needed to go. Walking through one of the entrances they all entered from and into a large hallway, he started to ponder about the type of fight they were going to be in. He'd been watching people battle for a couple of hours or so already and they were all random. Some were singles fights like the one that just took place, others a free-for-all with three to five participants, and the rest being team fights with two or three people on each side. Though with the current set up, he'd wager he was about to team up with the black-haired girl.

Sweet.

He was hoping to see how the girl fought since their interaction on the ship, but being able to fight alongside her was even better. While he really hoped they'd come out on top, he was absolutely excited for what was about to go down, no matter the outcome. Witnessing others like him freely duking it out had gotten his blood pumping and he was raring to prove himself as well.

Reaching the door to his destination, Naruto entered and found himself in a rather plain room. The only things of any significance at all were the simple table and chairs in the middle, a digital clock and speaker built into the wall, and the set of large double doors that he assumed led to the battlefield.

The sound of the door clicking behind him made him turn around to see Blake arrive, looking just like he last saw her except for her weapon's grip peeking over her shoulder like him.

"What are the chances, right?" Naruto greeted cheerily.

Door closing as she walked in, she met his lively visage and shrugged. "Pretty low, I guess." Ah, her naturally disinterested tone seemed to have remained.

"Really, that's it?" he asked dully. "No, 'wow, it's great to see you again', or, 'let's go kick some ass!'? C'mon, most of the people I've talked to in person lately are either full or borderline robots. Show some emotion!"

She blinked once in confusion. "What?"

"Will all competitors please make their way to the arena. This will be a two versus two battle," the same voice from earlier spoke through the room's speaker.

"No time to plan, huh?" Naruto asked himself as he stared at the other door. Guess they had to really get things rolling to fit the schedule. Shrugging, Naruto marched to and dramatically kicked the push bar on the door to expose the tunnel. "Let's go kick some ass!" he exclaimed, unnoticeably quoting himself, with a fist in the air.

Blake stood in place for a second as she watched him proudly carry on. Breaking her light stupor, Blake weaved through the closing door and quickly caught up to the blond. "We only have a few moments before getting out there. Weapon?" she asked with a sense of urgency, though the naturally dry tone accompanied it.

Taking a second to catch on, Naruto replied with, "Pretty much a machete tanto. Can use dust to increase its sharpness and do some other cool stuff. Semi-auto rifle."

"Katana and sheath I can wield simultaneously if necessary. Pistol," she said quickly, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel approaching. "Semblance?"

"Uh," he started, "some sort of aura manipulation. I can make an explosive shield, stick to stuff, and form it into chains. You, uh, kinda need to see to understand better," he added after seeing her curious look.

Getting her mind back on track, she continued. "Shadow clones. Good for mobility, with enhanced offensive and defensive capabilities if I choose to combine them with dust."

Well, it wasn't quite the amazing pre-battle strategy plan they were hoping for, but at least having a basic understanding of each other's abilities will help. At the very least they can use this information to not get in each other's way.

Exiting the tunnel and feeling so many sets of eyes on them, Naruto let out an impressed hum alongside a tiny smirk. "Shadow clones, huh? Don't know why, but I _really_ like the sound of that. Must be badass."

"You'll see," she replied, a serious glint in her eyes as she and her whiskered partner got into position and faced their opponents on the other side of the battlefield.

Unwavering olive green eyes bore into both Naruto and Blake as they arrived, the right one partially hidden by lavender bangs that extended into the rest of the woman's shoulder-length hair. While most of it was straight, the ends lightly grazing their owner's shoulders had some curl to them, with the only other significant part being a single, small braid hanging at the left side of her fair-skinned face, two white beads dangling near the bottom.

Naruto and Blake's eyes trailed downward to take in the shiny form-fitting metal armor covering her torso and shoulders. While sturdy-looking, they assumed mobility wasn't going to be a problem. Similarly colored silver gauntlets also protected everything from her elbows to fingertips, the hands also covered by some flexible yet sturdy cloth. Covering her lower half was a rather simple, dark knee-length combat skirt made with vertical sections of hardy leather with pointed ends, along with durable black boots that reached just below her knees.

The last, and rather eye-catching, thing the teens noticed was the massive silver lance stabbed into the dirt next to her, her gauntlet-covered hand casually brought up at level with the top of her head to grip and steady it. Upon closer inspection, besides the bulkiness at both ends of the lance's main body, there seemed to be a wide gun barrel resting above the large bayonet-like blade. Though considering its size, perhaps cannon was a more apt description.

"That must be Lilac," Blake quietly said, her amber gaze firmly meeting her female counterpart's.

"Is this not enough…?" her sensitive hearing picked up. Looking at her temporary partner, Blake saw Naruto self-consciously tugging at his orange sleeve, his eyes repeatedly flicking between his own clothes and Lilac's armor.

"Really? That's what you're concerned with?" she replied with the barest hint of mirth as they then eyed the violet-haired girl's teammate.

Right off the bat, to put it simply, the guy had bedhead. It wasn't even the kind that looked like it was done on purpose. The neck-length black strands going in every direction possible really did look messy from slumber. Blake and Naruto could've also sworn there were some indented sleep lines on his pale face like he had just finished a lengthy nap. Half-lidded gray eyes looked in their general direction but weren't really focused on them, at least not as much as his partner. His upper body was covered by a plain and wrinkled gray t-shirt with an open and tattered black jacket, while his lower half was only made up of a combination of sneakers and jeans with a few tears in them. As for his weapon—a silver butterfly sword with a metal hand guard and wooden handle—he was lazily weighing it in his hand next to its leather sheath on his belt.

"And that's Gris," Naruto stated, thinking up multiple scenarios of how the fight would go.

"Are all participants ready?" the automated voice asked, followed by an audible 'beep'.

Remembering how the other fights went, Naruto looked up and saw that the sound indicated all of their aura levels suddenly appearing next to their pictures. That was still a really cool feature in his opinion. Apparently, in official places of combat such as this stadium, there were various unseen sensors lined around the battlefield's walls that somehow consistently measured how much energy they had left. They could even track the same information on their scrolls if given clearance. It was definitely the handiest tool to keep injuries to a minimum; just another example of the technological marvels to come out of Atlas.

Once deemed ready, everyone started hearing a series of beeps acting as a countdown. Bringing his headband up around his forehead and unsheathing Hien with Blake following suit—though her weapon was still technically sheathed—Naruto lifted his blade towards the black-haired girl. Noticing her questionable gaze, he said, "C'mon. For good luck."

Relenting after a moment, Blake lifted her sword and tapped Naruto's with a small 'ting' only heard by them. After that they only had to wait for the signal to start.

 _BEEP_

And they were off, Naruto not wasting time as Hien turned into its rifle variant with a short-range sight emerging at the top. "Let's see what they got," he said giddily, before firing several shots at Gris, something the other male obviously didn't appreciate from the annoyed look on his face as he was forced to dodge to the side.

Following Naruto's lead for now, Blake quickly unsheathed her katana and had it transform into a pistol before shooting at Lilac.

The armored young woman was much calmer than her partner, not batting an eye as she simply stepped behind the large lance still stabbed into the ground. The bullets were easily blocked by the weapon—some pinging off of the stylized lily emblem—but that wasn't surprising to Blake. She'd honestly be disappointed if her opponent couldn't manage something that simple.

The short pause from her target being suppressed let Blake see that Gris had ran halfway to their position. That isn't to say it was going smoothly, though, as gunshots kept sounding off. Naruto had quickly gotten a feel for his movements and had grazed him a few times as he tried to move up, his grayish aura becoming visible with every successful hit. She could only imagine how quickly the fight would've ended if he didn't have his aura to protect him. Still, a look up at the screen showed that he wasn't doing well at all. A few hits from Naruto's bullets had taken over a quarter of his energy. Given that Gris's weapon didn't look like any sort of gun, it seemed rushing was his only option, which put him at a disadvantage from the get-go. His obviously rocky start, however, made it apparent he didn't expect the quick kickoff from the blond either, so he had to do as much as he could with what he had before it was too late. It wouldn't do him any good to be eliminated right off the bat.

A heavy clunking sound brought Blake's attention back to Lilac, and not a moment too soon as, despite the lance's size, Lilac had quickly brought it up to point at her as a purple glow started to emerge from its barrel.

Taking an easy guess of what was coming, Blake nimbly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the small explosion that impacted where she was standing. Now on her knee and observing her opponent critically, she saw Lilac stare right back as her lance's barrel glowed once more.

Blake was mentally counting down when to dodge again but was surprised as Lilac suddenly averted her gaze to the other half of the battlefield as her weapon was charged up to fire. It only took a small moment to see what she was planning as the purple-haired woman shifted her weapon's aim.

"Naruto!" Blake shouted.

The blond ceased his shooting as he turned to face the violet glow.

"Oh shit!" he cursed to himself before jumping to the side, a sizable crater forming in his prior spot. Quickly making his way back to his feet, he breathed a sigh of relief until he saw Gris suddenly emerge in front of him, fully taking advantage of the distraction his partner gifted him with. Naruto had to step out of the way of the first slash as Hien went back to a sword before making a slashing attack of his own. The swing made contact but it was with the small sword in Gris's grasp, locking them in place as they both began to push against each other.

"Not gonna last long with that!" Naruto grunted as he felt himself easily begin to overpower the shaggy-haired teen.

His arm wobbling as he fought back, Gris lazily smirked. "Don't get too cocky." The next thing Naruto felt was Hien and his arm twitching rapidly. For a second he had no idea what was happening until he saw Gris's arm and sword vibrate even more violently, enough for various afterimages to appear.

The blond wasn't sure how to react until he suddenly saw a few metal chips flick into the air above the swords. His eyes grew wide as he realized Hien was breaking apart. Some panic settling into his mind, Naruto stopped resisting and stepped to the side, letting Gris lurch forward unbalanced before taking a strong punch to his left cheek from his metal-covered glove.

He could practically feel Yang cheering on the simple attack.

Naruto's adversary grunted from the blow and staggered. The Uzumaki tried to take advantage and get in close while he could but his opponent saw it coming. Gris was quick to swing his blade at Naruto when he was too close to dodge, forcing the whiskered teen to block with Hien. Once again Gris's small sword began to rapidly shake as it met Hien head on, digging into and chipping away at the blade like a chainsaw to wood.

Naruto glared at the smug gray eyes that stared back and dared him to do something about his apparent semblance.

 _Damn it!_ Naruto mentally shouted as he jumped back while Gris gladly stayed put, making sure he was still near enough to close the distance in case Naruto tried shooting him again. Eying some of the small cracks on his blade, the blond winced. "Ruby's gonna kill me…" It wasn't exactly his fault for not knowing his foe's abilities, but he knew the weapon loving Rose wasn't going to care.

Looking back up to meet his opponent's eyes, Naruto figured he might as well show off some of his own tricks. If he was lucky, he'd be able to do more than enough damage to end the fight.

The blond began to charge forward with blade drawn, Gris holding his ground and fully prepared to shatter Hien in their next exchange. Ignoring the sounds of the, for now, steady back and forth between Blake and Lilac in the background, Naruto willed his aura to surround his entirety as he got within striking distance.

For a split-second Gris found it odd to see the spontaneous glistening of orange around Naruto. He knew it didn't spark from damage so he absentmindedly figured the Uzumaki was calling upon his reserves to lessen the upcoming damage. Even so, with his semblance it wouldn't take long to slice through his aura. For Naruto's sake, the tired-looking teen hoped he could take a nasty hit.

While readying to once again lock blades with his opponent, what Gris didn't expect was for Naruto to suddenly lower his weapon and rush in with a shoulder tackle. Surprising, yes, but not one to neglect such an opening, Gris swung his small blade at Naruto's exposed torso.

A short and blinding orange flash obscured Gris's vision the moment his vibrating blade made contact. He didn't know the cause of it, but he did know he felt himself flying backward through the air, a dull pain radiating up his arm.

With his mind in a daze, Gris gasped in pain as he landed on his back roughly slid across the battlefield floor. The dust from the impact was still fresh in the air around him as he shakily got back up to his feet. It was then that, as the pain in his arm receded, he realized his sword was absent from his grip.

With the most emotion he'd shown since the start of the match, he frantically looked around in alarm. The short search ended as he faced the direction of the female fighters as their melee bout started edging closer to his own, his missing weapon stabbed into the ground a few meters away from them.

He was never the most impressive physically, but it became apparent to him long ago that he didn't have to worry much once he got the hang of his semblance. Why fret about how strong you were if you could simply take an easily manageable—yet very durable—blade and cut through anything like a hot knife to butter?

Unfortunately, that led to an overreliance on his semblance, making his other fighting skills suffer because of it. Couple that with a naturally lazy personality and an unfavorable scenario like the one Gris now found himself in was a very real possibility. With that in mind, he did the only thing he could think of.

He desperately ran towards his sword.

"How long can you keep this up?" Lilac calmly questioned as she used a gauntlet to block a strike from Blake's katana.

"Long enough," was the similarly calm reply. After her words were uttered Blake used a shadow clone to swiftly jump out of the way of a fierce kick, Lilac vaulting off of her grounded lance to add more power to the strike.

Once they landed, both girls heard rapid footsteps approach from the side. Both cautiously witnessed Gris heading towards them and quickly realized his goal was his weapon in the ground.

Using the short pause in their fight, Blake tried to take advantage by transforming her blade back to a pistol and started opening fire at the defenseless teen. A couple of rounds impacted Gris's aura and made him stagger, his energy level now dipping into dangerous territory.

"Do something!" Gris yelled at Lilac, all of his lethargic attitude thrown out the window. Despite his plea, the purple-haired girl was already ahead of him as she hastily lifted her lance to thrust at Blake.

The Belladonna was fully prepared to make another escape with her semblance but she didn't need it.

"Tag me in!" Naruto yelled as he started firing his rifle at Lilac. With the sudden change in the flow of battle, Gris wasn't paying any attention to the blond at all since his landing while Lilac didn't have him in her immediate line of sight to act appropriately.

Absorbing the impact of several bullets against her torso and arm, Lilac was forced to go on the defensive by jumping back and shielding herself with her large weapon, her purple aura crackling for them to see.

His partner occupied and himself taking more damage by the second, all Gris could think of as he reached for his sword was to desperately use his semblance on Blake's weapon. He felt he was pretty much screwed at this point so all he could hope for was somehow showing the judges how much damage he could deal when given the opportunity.

However, his plan quickly collapsed as Blake _threw_ her pistol at his blade, the black ribbon attached to it snagging the handle before pulling it away and immediately tossing it at the wall behind her.

"No!" Gris yelled while reaching out futility, feeling all hope of making a lasting impact fade away from his mind.

"Yep!" Naruto shouted from behind.

Gris turned around to face the blond running right at him, his arm drawn back and Hien's fierce looking knuckledusters glinting from the stadium's light. Getting up close to punch the pale teen would be a satisfying trade-off for the damage Hien suffered in the blond's opinion.

However, an explosion between the two young men stopped Naruto's advance, sending a lasting cloud of dirt into the air after the brief purple flash. It was easy to figure Lilac was responsible, but Naruto thought she would still be on guard for a little longer. A quick look at the armored girl as she was charging up another shot showed her unflinchingly weathering Blake's bullets in an effort to buy her partner more time. It was a small sacrifice, he supposed, since her aura was still at a surprisingly decent level, just below Blake's.

He couldn't dwell on that for much longer as she then shot the ground between him and her, now blocking his vision of all three of the other fighters as the new dust cloud rose and merged with the first. A second later he heard the familiar mechanical sounds of reloading and it sure as hell wasn't Blake's pistol, so he immediately prepared himself for what was to come.

He didn't have to wait long to once again see the violet glow but it was blended in with the dust still wavering in front of him. He was waiting for the audible hum he had gotten used to from her weapon before it fired but he heard no such thing this time. He was even more confused when the light from her aura suddenly died out.

Had Blake swooped in for a swift ninja-like knockout or something? He didn't hear anything of the sort but if she did then he was impressed.

Suddenly he heard the light clanking of metal footsteps as they got closer, revealing Lilac once again as she ran around the wavering dust cloud.

Why she decided to attack this way he didn't know, but he might as well get back into it while she wasn't close enough to hit him or preparing to fire that damn cannon.

As he turned to face her he was startled by Blake's shout. "Naruto, there's a-"

A _neighing_ cry interrupted her warning, causing Naruto to shoot his head toward the sound coming from within the dust cloud. Just as he was done craning his head he barely managed to glimpse some sort of glimmering, violet appendages shoot through the dust and violently crash into his chest.

His breath left him as he flew through the air before slamming hard into the ground. Grumbling at the growing pain blossoming in his chest, Naruto slowly raised his head to see the newest entrant in the fight.

 _Really? A magical glowing horse?_ he mentally groaned in disbelief as he saw the impressive purple stallion standing on its hind legs and proudly neighing again, bits of sparkling light shimmering around its mane and large body.

Alright, he had to admit that was pretty cool. Even its voice had some sort of distortion that made it more mesmerizing than it already was. At least now he knew why he felt like he got kicked by a horse.

After getting over his own surprise at his partner's save, Gris let a smirk of satisfaction emerge on his face. "Ha! That's what you- huh?" he stopped as he noticed Blake's pistol start to spin around his body.

Blake pulled the ribbon as soon as her pistol locked around her distracted opponent's body, the blade of the katana expertly placed to not dig into his midsection. She didn't have to worry about damaging him any further now anyway, not with what she was about to do.

With a small cry of exertion, the girl used the versatility of Gambol Shroud in conjunction with her own strength to easily swing Gris off of his feet and become airborne.

He really should've trained to add more mass to his skinny physique.

The next thing Gris knew was his body being once again roughly introduced to the battleground. While it was just as 'fun' as last time he noticed one small difference. He now found himself outside of the battlefield's boundaries.

A short and loud buzz from the arena's intercom signified his elimination, making him groan in both pain and disappointment. Seeing his aura now in the red to match how he felt, all he did was rest his head and lightly punch the ground in frustration.

Pleased with the result, Blake smoothly returned the rest of Gambol Shroud to herself after detaching from the throw.

"Woo! Nice one, Blake!" Naruto yelled in excitement from a sitting position.

Blake gave her attention back to his side of the arena, seeing the blond giving her a thumbs up with a wide and whiskered smile.

Unwillingly, she felt a small grin forming but her attention was once again drawn to Lilac behind him. She pointed at her for Naruto's sake since the armored fighter was closer to him.

Still sitting, Naruto casually turned his torso enough to see Lilac now charging towards him, lance pointed forward to joust as she gracefully rode on her summoned steed.

"When the hell did she do that?" He barely spared any time to watch Gris take flight, after all.

Jumping to his feet, Naruto ignored the pain in his ribs as he emptied the rest of his current magazine into the front of the horse. Blake followed suit behind him but neither did much damage to the mass of aura, or at least damage that was obvious from the spectral creature as it shook the attacks off easily.

Nothing stopping her, Lilac and her new partner fiercely picked up the pace once they were near Naruto, surprising and forcing him to roll out of the way.

Once they passed him, Lilac willed the horse to suddenly stop and used her momentum to launch into the air. Once she reached a satisfying height, the armored woman charged up her lance and pointed it down at Blake. At the same time the horse followed the mental commands of its master and turned around to charge at Naruto. Now using its impressive speed to the fullest, Lilac's summon ran with the intent to bulldoze over the bewildered blond. Meanwhile Blake used her clones to dodge the explosive ordinance and once again rushed to meet the rapidly descending Lilac with her sword drawn.

Weighing his options, Naruto wiped some sweat from his brow. "Screw this," he said to himself. He didn't want to showcase everything until tomorrow, but since he didn't know what the next test was he might as well go all out now. He got a good enough feel at this point to realize Gris wasn't that tough to fight besides those stupid vibrations, so letting it play out wasn't a big deal. His partner, on the other hand, seemed to be way more capable of holding her own in a fight. Being able to now occupy both his and Blake's attention with such sudden ferocity was a testament to that.

Besides, if he purposely dragged the fight on longer than necessary, he would definitely feel Qrow's reprimanding slap to the back of the head if he found out. 'That isn't what a real huntsman would do' he'd say, or something else along those lines.

With that in mind, Naruto welcomed the horse closing the distance as he stared it down. Keeping Hien at the ready, along with swiftly loading a capsule of wind dust from his belt into the pommel, two of Naruto's orange chains emerged from his back and struck forward to meet the glowing animal. The horse cried out when the spikes stabbed into its neck and shoulder, throwing it off balance and knocking it over in a heap.

Hearing the painful cries of her summon, Lilac blocked Blake's katana with her metal-covered arm again before looking towards Naruto. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of her restrained partner, but her anger quickly turned to confusion as she felt her aura suddenly start to fluctuate until it steadily grew weaker.

Her first thought was to dismiss the immobile horse, but logically couldn't as it still served as a momentary distraction for the blond with the curious semblance. Besides, the aura she used to summon it was already spent and still being siphoned, so she couldn't just waste it. Still, seeing her partner in pain was never an enjoyable thing to witness, even with as little as it had happened over the years. Nevertheless, she felt a rising sense of urgency as the chains continued to retract and stab the stallion. Seeing a third chain emerge from Naruto's person to join the others, she realized she had to act quickly.

Freeing herself from the grounded lance, Lilac opted to surprise her dual wielding adversary by catching the katana in one hand and the sheath in the other. The sheath was no problem but she did feel the blade partly cut through her aura and glove. Taking the new opening, the violet-haired woman thrust her knee into Blake's gut, making her cough from the impact. She didn't have much time to dwell on the hit as Lilac immediately pulled Blake in to add a headbutt for good measure.

Though reeling from the attacks, Blake was still focused enough to swing her body with the momentum as she fell back, ripping herself from Lilac's grip, her blade slicing deep enough to draw blood from the armored girl's palm.

Lilac mentally cursed as Blake then used a shadow clone to move between her and the lance. Now separated from her weapon and trying her best to ignore the wound on her palm, she went on the defensive as Blake started to use her clones in tandem to strike all around her.

To her credit, Lilac was able to keep up with most of it as she hastily blocked the blade and sheath with her gauntlets when she couldn't dodge. Even so, a few hard hits managed to sneak in and keep her from properly countering.

"Yep, her semblance is badass," Naruto said to himself as he witnessed Blake flying around Lilac, her shadow clones following in the wake of her movements. Looking down at the grounded horse, Naruto brought his third chain up one more time before stabbing it into the horse's head, making it erupt in a rather entertaining show of purple glitter and light. Gaining proper control of his third chain as well as the first two was definitely a big help. At the back of his mind he was reminded that getting a fourth to even form properly was still somehow a challenge, but that was something to worry about later.

"And now that that's over with…" he muttered quietly to himself before taking notice of Lilac's aura taking a big hit. It was a healthy yellow before but after getting rid of the horse it was now steadily getting deeper into orange territory, with red not that far off.

Ah, well he might as well help end this as soon as he could.

Dispersing the chains, he started to run towards the last two combatants.

Lilac grit her teeth as she spared a moment to look at the fallen steed, before being forced to once again deflect a powerful slash from the bow wearing girl. She was running out of options fast, and her opponent wasn't relenting in the slightest. What she needed was an opening, and if Blake wasn't going to give her one, she'd just have to create one herself. Centering herself, Lilac continued parrying Blake's strikes until she finally saw what she was looking for: a heavy yet reckless downward swing of Blake's sheath. Shifting her body ever so slightly to the side, she let the blade harmlessly deflect off her sturdy pauldron before launching a devastating right hook, catching her unbalanced assailant right in the jaw. Ignoring the now downed girl, Lilac ran straight towards her lance. When she got close enough she slid on the ground and jumped up to desperately grab its large handle. Ripping it from the ground, Lilac brought the lance around and fired a volley of blasts at the rapidly approaching Naruto.

Seeing the sudden barrage coming his way, Naruto quickly broke off his advance and was once again forced to nimbly dodge the miniature explosions erupting around him. "How is this gun even tournament legal?" he lamented as the sheer concussive force of the nearby blasts was enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "Gah, hope Blake's doing better than I am."

Snapping out of her daze, Blake staggered to her feet rubbing her aching jaw. Luckily for her, her mind was quick to forget the pain at the sight of her partner getting bombarded by the lavender-haired girl… who's back was currently turned. She smirked.

 _Payback time._

Quickly retrieving her weapons, Blake dashed towards her opponent and jumped into the air before diving back down and swinging her katana with all the strength she could muster. Yet, as another testament to her skill, Lilac saw right through the stealthy assault and used the recoil from her cannon to viciously swing her lance back through the air to catch Blake on the side.

This time, however, Blake was prepared and ready to end the fight as well. When the point of the lance was about to touch her, she used one last clone infused with ice dust to catch it as she flew back. Blake's cat-like landing let her witness the shock on Lilac's face as her weapon got stuck in a perfect icy replica of the black-haired girl.

Lilac was about to try and pull her lance from its frozen prison but quickly abandoned that idea as she noticed Naruto close in from her peripheral vision. Deciding to go in a last stand of sorts, she faced the blond and got in a stance ready to take him head on.

Sadly, for the silver-armored testee, Naruto's sword started to glow white before he swung towards her with the flat of his blade.

She stared curiously as her opponent seemingly struck at thin air, but didn't have much time to dwell on it as a burst of harsh wind slammed into her. With the power behind it, she couldn't ground herself before she was forcefully pushed backward with a cry of surprise.

Luckily for her, she didn't gain much altitude and after a couple of seconds of air time managed to right herself by reaching down and digging into the ground. She felt the dirt break apart from her fingers and boots after she managed to get herself into a kneeling position, the crunching sounds receding as her sliding finally came to a halt a mere moment later.

Standing back up tiredly to face her opponents again, she felt herself jump as a familiar buzzing sound echoed around the arena. Sweat and dirt was apparent on her face as she looked down, unfortunately discovering that she was standing right on the white boundary line.

"Both members of team 'A' have been eliminated, therefore victory goes to team 'B'."

Lilac sighed in disappointment as she closed her eyes and relaxed her posture.

"Hey, you alright?" Her head came back up to see Naruto and Blake walking towards her, their weapons put away. The blond, having spoken, continued. "Didn't look too bad there, but still." He shrugged. "Everything where it should be?"

Lilac nodded, pushing away a few strands of matted hair from her face. She cleared her throat when they stopped in front of her. "All is well," she calmly said with a low yet feminine tone. She lightly bowed her head. "You both fought valiantly. Thank you for the experience."

Blake nodded back silently in response. Naruto was more verbal, however.

"You were good out there too, y'know." He tapped his noticeably sore chest with his free hand. His face scrunched up in discomfort despite the smile he tried to convey. "Gotta admit, didn't expect a magical horse to knock me on my ass like that. It was actually pretty cool."

Lilac eyed him strangely. "You enjoyed getting kicked?" Well, that was a first out of anyone she'd ever sparred with.

"Not that, dattebayo," he replied, both girls looking at him strangely.

"What does that mean?" Lilac asked.

"Not important." He hastily brushed past her question while waving his hand. "Anyway, I mean seeing a semblance like that was really cool. I knew there would be some variety here but being up close to something like that was awesome, especially when you rode it!" He chuckled and bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "Even though I was sorta on the wrong end of it," he added.

Lilac's green eyes gained some life as she gently shook her head in amusement. "Thank you." Well, he certainly was a lively one.

"Oh, and yours!" Naruto exclaimed, surprising Blake as he turned to her. "I _knew_ shadow clones sounded badass!"

"You really like being loud, don't you?" a bored voice cut in. All three saw Gris taking his time walking over with his sword back in his possession. Joining them, he slowly sighed and looked up at their aura levels with half-lidded eyes. "Guess all that energy has to go somewhere..." he drawled.

While his and Lilac's were low, more so in his case, they were slowly recovering. Blake was barely dipping into orange, mainly due to the repeated use of her semblance and that rather nasty punch.

Naruto on the other hand…

"Is a large aura pool part of your semblance?" Lilac asked intriguingly, seeing he had still had about 75% left.

"How did you barely lose any?" Blake added with a tilt of her head.

Naruto hummed an 'I don't know'. "Vitamins, maybe?" he answered halfheartedly. He really had no idea why he had the amount of aura he did. Still, it was one thing knowing he could continuously throw out attacks with his semblance and tank attacks like he has before, but actually seeing his level measured out was something else.

Rolling his neck uncaringly, Gris said, "Whatever." He turned to Naruto and Blake. "Good fight, I guess. Good luck tomorrow." And just like that, with hands in his pockets, he turned to leave towards his entrance tunnel with a tired limp in his step.

"He's a passionate guy, isn't he?" Naruto sarcastically remarked.

Lilac placed her hands on her hips as she watched her teammate walk away with an annoyed glare. "Barely said a word before we exited. Didn't even wake up enough to tell me his semblance after I told him mine."

"Tough luck," Naruto said, Blake lightly nodding next to him.

Lilac shook her head and looked at them. "Despite the circumstances, I'd say we all put on a better performance than most." She looked at them and gave a polite smile. "I hope all goes well for you both. If what showed today is any indication, you both have bright futures ahead of you. Maybe we can test ourselves against each other again someday."

Naruto smiled back. "That'd be awesome. Look forward to it." He reached a hand out which was firmly grasped by Lilac's before they shook.

Lilac looked at Blake but paused as she noticed a rather wicked bruise blooming on her left cheek. "Oh, are you alright?" she asked the dark-haired girl.

Noticing her concerned gaze, Blake indifferently shrugged. "It's nothing. I've had worse," she assured.

That punch must've been harder than she thought.

"Eh, could be serious. Should probably check with the infirmary," Naruto said before he lowered his headband back to his neck and turned to walk to their tunnel.

"It's not," Blake replied dismissively.

"Too late, c'mon."

"My aura will take care of it. It barely even hurts anymore," she argued sparsely.

With his back facing both women as he continued to walk, he nonchalantly said, "Nope, gotta be safe, and you have to be ready for tomorrow."

"He's right. Better to be safe than sorry," Lilac said to an unmoving Blake.

"See, she gets it! Now hurry up!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I can take care of myself," Blake called back.

"Not saying you can't, but we're still technically partners until we leave the building, so there's still some responsibility. Besides, I can have a fractured rib because of that horse for all I know, and I know _I'd_ feel bad if I left my partner hanging like that." He raised his hand to wave. "Again, cool semblance, Lilac! Hope you kick ass tomorrow too!"

The violet-haired knight nodded her thanks again, even if he didn't see it, while Blake sighed.

Three chains emerged from Naruto's retreating back and lazily began to move around. "We can do this the easy way or hard way, Blake! Your choice!"

With a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes, Blake finally began to follow the whiskered blond as Lilac moved to grab her weapon.

Knowing he won, Naruto let the chains disperse before walking with more pep in his step as he finally let their victory sink in. The smile he wore as he pumped his fist to himself was quickly broken by the pulse of pain still throbbing in his chest.

"Yeah, _I'm_ the one that needs checking," Blake commented when she caught up.

"Don't need any sass, hair bow…"

* * *

"Um, is this the place?" Blake asked with a questioning gaze.

"I, uh, think so?" The blond eyed the wooden sign haphazardly nailed into the formerly blemishless wall above a door. "'Mama Bear's Den'?" he skeptically drawled, eying the colorfully painted pictures of flowers, forestry, and a single happy and cartoonish face with rounded ears of some sort sticking out on top. Right at the edge of the wood he could make out what looked like the second 'C' in 'Clinic' hiding behind it.

The door then opened with a click, revealing the young man who lost in the match before theirs with a few bandages on his arms and a lollipop hanging out his mouth.

"This is the place," he stated as he walked away, having figured they had the same reaction as him when he was led here.

" _Okaaay_ …" Naruto said before he and Blake entered through the door and into the infirmary.

It was as one would suspect a medical center to be, what with the various beds, IV stands, diagrams, and a bunch of equipment Naruto didn't bother to understand. A quick once-over of the large area showed that some examinees were still resting on a bed from their earlier injuries, a doctor or nurse periodically checking in with them. Naruto briefly hoped that wouldn't interfere with their participation for the next day.

To their confusion they even saw Gris taking a nap in one of the beds and looking happier than they thought he was physically capable of. However, the tranquil ambiance of his restful state was tainted by the nurse staring at his sleeping form in annoyance, a clipboard in her hand that she knew listed he wasn't seriously hurt and was cleared to leave.

"I'm free over here, you two!" a feminine voice cheerfully called to them.

Both teens turned to see a woman waving at them from the far side of the room, her black stocking-covered legs happily swaying as she swirled her office chair from side to side. With black dress shoes covering her excited feet, along with the dark business skirt and the pale pink sweater under an open white lab coat, they assumed she was one of the doctors.

"Don't be shy!" she continued in a singsong voice.

After a moment both teens made their way to the seated woman, more details like her long and wavy light orange hair, half-framed rectangular glasses over lively dark pink eyes, and the two bear-like ears the same color as her hair sticking out the top of her head becoming more prominent.

The woman stopped her swaying and stood to her short stature and faced the teens when they arrived in her little area. "So! What's the damage?" she asked peppily.

"Ever been kicked in the chest by a horse? Turns out it isn't as fun as people say if you can believe that," Naruto said good-naturedly while tapping said afflicted area.

"Okie dokie then," she said and directed him to sit on the medical bed. Once he was seated she stood in front of him and lifted a hand that began to glow a peachy orange. Naruto and Blake paid rapt attention as she ran her hand over the blond's chest while absentmindedly humming a catchy tune.

"Huh, that feels weird. What're you doing?" Naruto asked.

She stopped her song. "Hm? Oh, just a little scan to feel out any abnormalities and just a general diagnosis. Let's see here- ah!" She pulled her hand back in surprise, looking like she was zapped by a heavy dose of static electricity.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked nervously, suddenly thinking of a million things that could be messed up with him.

The doctor stared at him in slight wonder but shook it off. "Dunno. There was just a weird feeling for a second. Never had that before..." She called her aura to do another quick test over his chest. "Huh, nothing that time. Anyway, you're fine from what I could tell. There's some deep bruising but your aura is already making some strides to help you out, _buuut_ I'm assuming you want to be completely good to go tomorrow so here." Smiling, she let an orange orb of aura build in her hand and reached forward to tap Naruto's chest with it.

As Naruto felt a warmth start to spread within him, he looked down to see that the glowing ball stuck to his chest as the woman pulled her hand back. Upon closer inspection he noticed that as the seconds ticked on by the orb's size began to shrink, coinciding with the fact that the soreness began to vanish as his aura started to glow on its own in response.

He chuckled at the sight of yet another impressive semblance, and a really useful one at that. "This is pretty cool."

"I know, right? Good thing I really like this line of work, huh?" the woman cheerfully replied. She let Naruto continue to stare at and even try poking the healing ball before thinking to the strange jolt in his aura. _What was that?_

Moving on, she turned her attention to Blake who was patiently waiting. "What about you, sweetheart?"

"Nothing's wrong. Only had a small bruise on the cheek but it's gone now." Blake really didn't know why she ended up actually following the blond here. She was sure she could've left without any fuss, but she probably wanted to avoid a headache from his pushback. Okay, maybe that sounded a little harsh towards someone only looking out for her, but it's been quite a while since she's had this kind of social interaction. Now that she thought about it, Naruto's been the first person to actively try to befriend her at all since she ventured out on her own.

"Oh well, doesn't hurt to check." Like before, the medical professional brought her aura-encased hand to Blake's face and even scanned her head for good measure. After a moment she pulled back. "Yep, you're perfectly fine. Nothing really worth noting." Very subtly the bear faunus reached up to lightly scratch one of her furry ears as she gave Blake a knowing wink.

The dark-haired girl only responded by averting her eyes.

Noticing that the orb attached to Naruto was fully absorbed, the woman gleefully clapped a couple of times. "There, all done! Now then…" she bent over to grab a large jar she hid behind her desk. "Why don't you both take a parting gift for the road!"

Naruto and Blake curiously looked at the large collection of red lollipops that were proudly presented to them.

"Go ahead, I made them myself," she happily added while giving the jar a shake.

Not seeing a reason not to, Naruto grabbed one and took off the wrapper before licking the candy.

"Not bad," he commented with Blake nodding next to him as she quietly did the same. "Can't really name the flavor, though."

The woman grinned cheekily. "Most people don't. They're mainly made with sap from Forever Fall." She started to practically vibrate where she stood. "I just love the stuff! Besides being an ingredient for these and other treats, they even have some medicinal purposes too! It's always a happy day when the students bring me a fresh supply!"

"Students?" Blake questioned.

Blinking a couple of times, the doctor's eyes widened and covered her mouth with a hand. "Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." Standing straighter and locking her arms behind her back, she proudly stated, "I'm Panacea Peach, head of nursing and professor at Beacon Academy!"

The teen's eyes showed surprise. "Really?" Naruto asked.

"Yep!" Peach responded. "Maybe I'll even end up teaching you two if things go well! I already know Naruto but what's your name?" she addressed the young woman, not paying attention to Naruto's exasperated stare.

 _First Ciel, now her? What the hell?_ he thought.

"Um, Blake Belladonna," she answered while looking at the blond curiously.

Noticing their faces, the peppy professor said, "Oh, don't be so surprised, Naruto. Can't really expect to train like you have without all of us knowing. The videos are fun to watch by the way. I especially like the one where you clotheslined yourself on a tree branch trying to do a sneak attack a few years back!"

A red hue emerged onto Naruto's cheeks. "I wasn't good yet…" he weakly defended.

Peach supportively tapped his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Look at you now! I'll admit that your way wasn't the smartest thing to do in terms of safety, but I like your spirit! Sure, prudes like Glynda usually disapprove and demand punishment, but how can she mad at this face!" Peach proceeded to rub her hands up and down on Naruto's cheeks.

Blake watched with even more confusion and some light amusement while Naruto simply let it happen, subconsciously reliving some of his 'pinching' memories as a kid. "Uh, who's Glynda?" he asked, his words jumbled from his cheeks being played with.

"Oh, just another professor, the headmaster's second hand, headmistress or whatever people call her," Peach replied as she finally let the blond free from her hands.

"Oh." Someone like that at the school he wanted to go to already didn't like what he was doing?

Lovely.

"Excuse me, but what are you two talking about?" The curiosity was simply too much for Blake to stay quiet.

"In short, long-term trespassing," was Naruto's reply.

"Okay?"

Seeing a couple of other testees enter the room with their own minor injuries, Peach began to push Naruto and Blake towards the door. "Now off you go! Mama bear has a job to do and she can't lead the others if you distract her!"

 _Wasn't she talking the most?_ the two teens thought, idly noticing that they passed a bewildered Lilac who was having her cut palm bandaged at one of the other beds.

Once they made it out with the door clicking behind them, Naruto pointed to Hien over his shoulder and said, "I have to go get my weapon checked out. Want to tag along?"

"Sorry, but I was planning on doing something once we were free," she declined politely.

Naruto was disappointed but that didn't trouble him too badly. He gathered from the few interactions they've had that even just accompanying him to the clinic like she did was probably out of her comfort zone. If she wanted to be alone then he couldn't force her to do anything else.

"Alright, no big deal. Maybe I'll see you around then?"

"Maybe," she answered with a small nod and turned to leave down the hall.

"Good luck tomorrow!" Naruto exclaimed as he followed her example and went the other way.

Blake hesitated but answered back. "You too." Turning her head to glance at his retreating back, she once again found herself curious about the blond.

Besides her interest about his facial marks from the previous day, she also began to wonder about his supposed connection with Beacon. Plus, he knew Tukson, and that alone was enough to keep her attention on him longer than most people she bumped into.

Shaking her thoughts, she quickened her stride in order to accomplish what she set out to do today besides the test.

There was a new edition of _Ninjas of Love_ that just came out, and one was at a nearby bookstore with her name _all_ over it.

* * *

"Yeah, it's not happening, kid."

"Are you serious…?"

The soot-covered man gestured to the cracked Hien resting on the counter, a myriad of blacksmiths tirelessly working on other weapons behind him in the forge. "We can't magically repair damages like this in an instant, and while this won't take too long, I can't recommend using it for the last part of the exam, whatever it is."

Naruto sighed in disappointment and rubbed the back of his neck. "Does that disqualify me or anything?"

The burly man shook his head. "This kind of thing has happened before so don't worry. You'll just have to make do with whatever skills or other equipment you have. Tests change all the time so you can never fully be prepared anyway. Just like how certain weapons give you an advantage, so do your other talents, semblances and the like, so I hope you got something that'll take care of ya out there." The man moved to get started on repairing Naruto's sword. "She'll be all ready before you leave. Good luck, kid."

As he watched Hien get carried away, Naruto felt his mind racing over the thoughts of tomorrow. While he was sure he left a good enough impression from his fight, he knew it wasn't perfect. Still, if he wanted to guarantee his name being on everyone's radar, Hien or not he had to live up to the expectations set not only by himself but by everyone that helped him get here for the final exam.

"Oh, that reminds me…" he muttered before he walked into the hallway and pulled out his scroll.

* * *

"No, Melanie, Naruto still isn't back," Ayame said while her scroll was being held to her ear by her shoulder. "Well, if Miltia is getting cranky without her dumplings then just send one of those guys with the sunglasses to pick something up." The brunette rolled her eyes as she finished chopping some chicken and grabbed the scroll with her hand. "Well, it's not our fault if they can't carry it right. Tell them to be careful so everything doesn't fly around in the box. You do realize that you'll have to get used to Naruto being unavailable all the time once he goes to an academy, right? See, you'll have to get used to- no, giving him bigger tips isn't going to stop him from leaving. Wait, how much?"

Teuchi chuckled as he watched his daughter work. Leaning on the counter, he looked at the sisters having desert. "Think you two can last another couple of days without Naruto around?"

Yang rolled her eyes as she ate the last of her ice cream. "Yeah, yeah, we'll be fine. Good to take a 'dattebayo' break every now and then," she replied jokingly.

Ruby couldn't add her input due to the mouth full of cake Ayame was nice enough to offer.

"Uh-huh, you know it's cute when he lets it slip," Ayame happily retorted once she ended the phone call.

Yang conceded with a shrug while wiping her mouth with a napkin.

Ayame's scroll started to suddenly ring, making the woman sigh as she pulled it out again so soon. However, her eyes lit up when she saw who it was.

Optioning to make it a video call Ayame tapped the screen and held it to her face. "You're alive, Naruto! How did you do?" she excitingly asked, garnering attention from the other three.

"I think I did good enough on the written part, but I also won my fight today! It was awesome to test myself, but also seeing a bunch of semblances in person was so cool, dattebayo!" they heard him exclaim, Yang smiling as she shook her head in the background with Ruby giggling beside her.

"So what are you doing now?" Ayame asked.

"Just got done talking with the blacksmith about something, but now I'm not sure. I'll probably get something to eat and then-"

Naruto's face suddenly disappeared from Ayame's view and she found herself now staring at her empty hand. Crimson petals began to fall around her, causing her to turn around to see Ruby staring at her stolen scroll's screen with fierce intensity.

"What. Were you doing. At the blacksmith…?" Ruby eerily asked with the least amount of emotion that anyone had seen her express, sending a small chill down their spines.

Naruto was the worst off as a nervous sweat broke out onto his face. "H-hey, Ruby! H-how was your day?"

"Fine. Having cake. Blacksmith. Answer _now_ …"

Naruto coughed in dread to clear his throat and averted his gaze from Ruby's silver eyes. "Well… um… y'see… Hien sorta… kinda... had a little accident..."

"What. Kind. Of accident…?" she asked, her eyes hidden in the shadow of her bangs.

"Um… y'know, the most important thing to focus on is that everything is going to be okay."

"Naruto, if you don't tell me what happened to Hien…" She let the threat dangerously hang in the air.

The other three, including a few weary eavesdropping customers, watched the interaction with anticipation.

"Oooh…" Yang excitedly whispered to herself, clearly entertained.

"Naruto! I'm so happy you won!" a different voice cried from Naruto's side of the conversation, confusing everyone at the ramen stand.

Ruby saw Naruto turn his head in surprise. "Penny, when did you- wait, hold o- gah!"

The call was suddenly cut, the words 'Call Ended' left blinking on the screen before it completely went blank. All that Ruby managed to see before she was hung up on was a blur of orange hair on some freckle-faced girl apparently named Penny as she jumped to tackle the blond.

"Naruto…?" Ruby muttered hollowly. Her normally innocent face suddenly scrunched up in all the anger she could muster, or what Yang would label as a very angry puppy. "NARUTO! Who was that girl?! Why did you hang up?! What happened to my daughter?!"

As they all watched Ruby pointlessly and hysterically yell at a blank screen, Yang looked at the Ichirakus and jokingly asked, "Think you can handle a custody battle?"

The father raised his hands and walked away into the kitchen as if to say 'I'm not touching this'.

Ayame shook her head and continued to stare at the troubled Rose in amusement. "Never thought he'd even get close to this kind of problem, or at least not as a teenager," she said in fake disappointment.

Yang then expertly revealed the cherry she saved from her ice cream sundae for Ayame to see. "Yes, I'm sure it'll be a _cherry_ interesting time. It should teach Naruto to treat everything he cares about _cherry_ carefully. I think it-"

 _THWAP_

Yang lowered the cherry as her mind slowly registered that Ayame threw and smacked her in the face with her rag to silence her.

"Rude…" she murmured under the cloth.

* * *

(Omake - What is Good in the Hood?)

"Why am I doing this again?" Naruto asked.

"Because you promised to help me with a favor after training, and from what you've said, you don't break promises, remember?" Ruby replied.

As Naruto lay on Ruby's bed, he stared up and read through the script in his hands with _Little Red Riding Hood_ on the cover. "Yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of helping search for something weapon-related online, going into town to pick out a comic, or helping bake again."

"What's life without a little variety? Anyway, stop stalling and tell me what you think!" she exclaimed resolutely from her cross-legged spot at the bed's corner.

He hummed as he skimmed through previous pages for the play. "Quick question?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is Red loved by many?"

"Because she's adorable, pure, and has a heart of gold. Lots of stories have main characters like that."

"And why is she also a trained warrior with a mechanical scythe… that is also a gun?"

"That… that's just how the world is. It's plenty relatable that way."

Naruto sat up. "This is supposed to be a children's fairy tale but alright…" he said to himself and continued to read through more pages. He then looked at Ruby impassively. "I'm listed as playing the wolf if you can't find anyone better?"

"Your whisker marks practically make you perfect, though!"

"Uh-huh… also why is there a little footnote that the woodsman is Red's father's long lost twin brother who went missing in the war? What war are we even talking about? There's literally no mention of it in anyone's lines. How is this- mmf!"

With impressive speed, Ruby lunged forward, grabbed one of her pillows, and proceeded to smother Naruto with it.

"You don't understand art!" she proclaimed, cutting off his precious oxygen and ignoring any muffled sounds as Naruto tried to speak.

The door to the room clicked and in walked Yang who came to investigate the noise. She stood still as she emotionlessly stared at a pajama-clad Ruby apparently trying to murder their friend with an ironically heart-shaped pillow.

Taking a few steps in, she noticed the discarded script that fell to the ground in the struggle and picked it up.

"Possible titles for second play: _Little Red Riding Hood 2: Tokyo Drift_ ," she read aloud from the last page before flipping through the others. "What is this? Ruby, did you put yourself in a story as a mary sue character or something?"

"You're already planning a sequel?" Naruto managed to mumble through the cushion.

Ruby redoubled her efforts to push the pillow on his face.

"You're both ruining my vision!"

* * *

 **AN: Heeey, how're y'all doin'?** **I think the usual 'lack of update' apology goes without saying so I'll just move on.**

 **Quality assurance and creation of Lilac and Gris are credited to Fan-Of-FictionX01 (surprise, surprise).**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this, and please let me know what you guys think. Like always, I'm open to criticism, suggestions, and whatever else you guys feel like expressing.**

 **Next chapter should be the last before canon starts up so I'm looking forward to that. I also wonder if anyone has caught references from another series in this and last chapter? Perhaps this series is giving me other ideas for the future? *hint hint***

 **Anyway, thanks for checking this out. I'll try to get the next one out faster.**

 **Later!**


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